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Botswana 2019

Mambas, nile crocodiles, hippos and elephants!
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Crocodylusniloticus

  • Not my usual photo of scales and teeth, but I thought this horse silhouette in a dusty African sunset made for a really nice photo. And here you guys probably thought I was a one dimensional reptile guy 😜<br /> <br /> Photographed with a Sony A7riii with a Metabones mark V adapter and Canon 100-400 telephoto lens.
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  • A chubby young nile crocodile basking in a log in the Okavango delta in Botswana. This one was actually the first croc I saw in Botswana! Saw some huuuge ones too. <br /> Funny enough I had already caught a wild nile croc in Florida a few years ago with some colleagues, it was all over the news 😂 but no they’re not breeding in Fl and there were only 3 found that had escaped from a facility. <br /> Seeing nile crocs in the wild in their natural habitat was amazing, they’re gorgeous animals and get massive!<br /> <br /> Photographed with a Sony A7riii with a Metabones mark V adapter and Canon 100-400 telephoto lens.
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  • Checkout the size of this massive Nile crocodile I photographed in the Okavango Delta in Botswana recently. This was one of the larger individuals we saw, estimated around 15ft. They get larger than that even, although truly huge individuals are difficult to find due to hunting by humans. Nile crocs are well known for taking down a variety of large mammalian prey in Africa, such as wildebeest, zebra, gazelles and more. Since they’re very used to taking large prey, something “small” like an adult human is easy prey and people in the area must be very wary near the water. Some studies estimate roughly between 300-700 humans a year are eaten by Nile crocs, but the number is difficult to ascertain in remote villages with no annual consensus or record keeping. A remote area villager’s dependence on gathering water from the bank also makes them far more susceptible to attack than people in developed areas, leading to such a high number. <br /> We didn’t observe any aggressive behavior from any of the crocs on this trip, and it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat. I actually caught a Nile crocodile in the Everglades a couple of years ago with some of my colleagues, it was one of three Nile crocodiles captured in the Everglades that escaped from a local facility. There is not a known population of breeding Nile crocodiles in the Everglades<br /> Photographed with a Sony A7riii with a Metabones mark V adapter and Canon 100-400 telephoto lens.
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  • Look at this cute and unassuming little black racer I photographed...oh wait it’s actually a black mamba, the most dangerous snake in the world!! Crazy how much it looks like one of the harmless and nonvenomous black racers we have in the USA! <br /> <br /> As with all the mambas I encountered, it wasn’t aggressive at all and had no interest in me. Now if you corner one or try to handle it, WOW are they fast and strike with agility! But I went Africa hearing all these stories of mambas chasing people down and being hyper aggressive, meanwhile I hung out up a tree with three different individuals without any signs of aggression and only trying get away. <br /> Photographed with a Sony A7riii with a Metabones mark V adapter and Canon 100-400 telephoto lens.
  • Handling a 7ft black mamba
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  • A nile crocodile I photographed basking in the late afternoon sun on a sandy bluff over the river in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Check out those gorgeous pearly whites! Just like I post about with my gators in Florida’s, crocs will shed their teeth and grow them back, cycling through thousands of teeth in a lifetime. This results in vibrant white teeth for some individuals, although the teeth can certainly be stained by the water depending where they’re at. <br /> <br /> Photographed with a Sony A7riii with a Metabones mark V adapter and Canon 100-400 telephoto lens.
  • While in Botswana I caught this little 3-4ft Nile croc off the front of the boat, such a gorgeous little one! The eyes on niles are so pretty!! We checked him out for a few photos and released him. <br /> Photo taken of me by Jeff Schmidt
  • A pair of African elephants I photographed in Botswana! They were on a tree island in the delta then bulldozed a trail straight through the ten foot high reeds like a person walking through knee high grass!<br /> <br /> Being in the wild, on foot in the bush with them was so incredible, they’re so huge and amazing. It was just mind blowing to be near them in the wild, I was speechless. And hearing them! Wow that was special. We were lucky enough to encounter elephants almost every day of the trip, one day it was a group of 20! <br /> Photographed with a Sony A7riii with a Metabones mark V adapter and Canon 100-400 telephoto lens. If you enjoy my photos I always read and appreciate comments, also feel free to share and see more at my website <a href="http://www.ChrisGillette.com">http://www.ChrisGillette.com</a> <br /> #elephant #wildelephant #africa #botswana #pachyderm
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