Living Luangwa

A second life

Patrick — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:53:48 +0000

This is an aerial photograph of a fallen tree, long ago dead and lying in a river bed. The grass and bushes growing around it give a false impression that it still has leaves on its branches and that it is actually alive.

Fallen tree

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

Elephant crossing

Patrick — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:29:45 +0000

Elephants crossing the Luangwa river at dawn

A slightly belated Happy New Year! I have some very exciting photography projects in the pipeline for this year and will post details here soon. All the best for 2012!

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

A blizzard of bats!

Patrick — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:35:39 +0000

Each year during November and December an incredible wildlife spectacle takes place in Kasanka national park in Zambia’s central province. Eight million (!) straw coloured fruit bats (apparently the greatest concentration of mammalian biomass ever recorded) converge on the national park.

Straw coloured fruit bats coming in to roost.

The bats roost in an area of evergreen swamp forest only about a hectare in size. Their bodies are packed tightly together as they jostle for the limited space among branches which often break off due to the sheer weight of the bats!

Roosting fruit bats.

As dusk descends they take off from the sagging branches and within minutes the sky is filled with millions of bats flying in all directions, fanning out into the forest to feed on the wild fruit that is so abundant at this time of year.

Fruit bats leaving their roosts at dusk

Fruit bats taking off at sunset.

Fruit bats fill the sky at sunset.

Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography

Lion kill from the air

Patrick — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:40:35 +0000

I recently spent a fantastic week flying over the Luangwa in John Coppinger’s (Remote Africa safaris) microlight and on one occasion was lucky enough to photograph a lion kill from the air. We were flying up the Mupamadzi river, a major tributary of the Luangwa, when we came across a pride of 15 lions hunting a herd of impala in the long grass beside the river. As we watched the impala got wind of the lions and ran for the bush with the lions in hot pursuit. Just when I thought they had all got away a yearling impala doubled back towards the river and jumped off a high bank into the water.

One lioness was quick to see this and ran along the top of the bank as the impala floundered in the water below her. As soon as the lioness was close she jumped down and after a short chase had killed the impala. The whole episode was over in a few seconds.

The lioness then ran into some nearby thickets carrying the impala and was quickly followed by the rest of the pride. We circled a few times overhead but it was impossible to see down into the dense bush. I could just imagine the chaos going on in there as they all fought over the kill.

Thinking that the action was over we flew on upstream for half an hour or so before returning to see if the lions had come back out into the open. Incredibly while we were away they had killed three Cookson’s wildebeest in and around the river! A wildebeest herd had obviously come down to drink and had been ambushed by the pride of lions hiding in the thick bush.

We returned to the scene in the afternoon and there was only one wildebeest carcass remaining and a pride of very fat looking lions spread out along the river bank…