LIFE IN THE WILD —

A MOTHER GIRAFFE’S SAD STORY A mother giraffe gave birth to her baby when a leopard was in the area.

He attacked the baby giraffe but was chased away by a pack of hyenas.

The mother could not do anything to help. She was standing and pro-

tecting her baby. Her baby was dying in front of her and the hyenas had

surrounded her, waiting in the bush, waiting for her baby to die. (Hyenas

do not eat live animals. They are scavengers. They steal dead animals

from lions, leopards, cheetahs, and so on.)

The baby giraffe, as you can see in the picture, still has the placenta at-

tached to her. I was taking these pictures and tears were rolling down

my face. This is life in the bush.

The next morning we drove into the bush and back to the mother and

baby giraffe. We got stuck in the mud going there. (You can see our

safari car and the other emergency vehicle that came to pull us out of the

mud.) By the time we got to the mother and baby, the mother had left

the area and the hyenas were eating the baby.

2013 BOTSWANA

Wild Adventures with Baroness Danuté

The Tourist meets the Professional Photographer

“C’mon, Danuté… come see the cobra.”

“No, thank you.”

“It’s in the street.”

“They spit in your eyes and blind you.”

Silence.

Baroness Danuté

Professional Photographer

baronessdanute@aol.com

http://www.baronessdanute.blogspot.com

http://wildadventureswithbaronessdanute.blogspot.com/

Sanctuary Chiefs’ Camp

The rains had subsided so I and

Ranger Sky left base camp in search of

something for me to shoot. There’s nothing

like the light and smell of the African bush

after the rains. It’s beautiful. One second

we were driving in silence and then all of

the sudden, Sky said to me, “Danuté,

there’s a bull and he’s spitting… he wants

to mate with the female.” Sky pointed

ahead of us. I saw the bull spitting white

stuff. “Let’s go!,” I said. “It’s very danger-

ous,” he said. “I don’t care. I want to go.”

So Sky took us closer to the elephants.

It happened very fast. Just like the

giraffes that were surrounded by the hyenas

the day before, now I was surrounded – but

by a herd of elephants. It was the first time

I felt like I was captured by the animals I

was photographing.

SURROUNDED And held HOSTAGE by a

Herd of Elephants

Elephants are so smart; like

people. They covered every road and

blocked each one. Then they sur-

rounded us so that we couldn’t move

in any direction. It felt like we had

been captured. We were their hos-

tages. There were so many babies.

I saw two babies on the road ahead

of us. I sat in the jeep and kept tak-

ing pictures. The elephants were so

close. It was a trip of a life time.

ELEPHANTS

are so smart;

like

people...

2013 BOTSWANA

2013 BOTSWANA

We were parked for

about an hour when

one of the younger ele-

phants approached the

jeep.

He began playing in the dirt

and tossing it into the air.

He got so close to me that he threw dirt at me but

then some got into his eye.

I laughed.

It was as if God punished him

for being mean to me.

The elephant used his nose to

scratch his eye.

2013 BOTSWANA

About another hour or so passed when one of the mother elephants

and her baby came up to our jeep and started sniffing around us.

Sky was worried about the bull in the back ground because the

bull was getting closer to us, too.

Sky got on the phone to alert base camp in case of an emergency. He was scared.

“Don’t worry,” I said.

“Everything is going to be fine.” I asked him, “What are you calling them for? What are

they going to do – send in a helicopter to lift us out?”

He started laughing.

You just have to relax.

I mean,

what can you do?

2013 BOTSWANA

The bulls are very aggressive when they are looking for a female to

mate with.

Elephants are part of the “Big 5” and very dangerous.

They can just destroy you.

A jeep is nothing to a full, grown elephant.

And there were about 300 elephants and just us,

in the 1 jeep...

2013 BOTSWANA

Right after Sky hung up, another elephant came right up to our jeep. He was so

close.

He tried to put his trunk under the hood of the jeep to turn

us over. I had to sit still like the Statute of Liberty. I wanted to shoot. It was exciting.

He was young. It’s a good thing he was young and foolish. Thank God, because he didn’t

know how to dump the jeep.

So he just shook us until he couldn’t get us to flip and finally got bored and left.

2013 BOTSWANA

3 hours had passed...

Finally, the herd turned around and went away from us.

As soon as there was an opening,

Sky started the jeep, put his foot on the gas and we roared down the

road and as far away from the herd as he could get us.

There’s never a dull moment in the bush.

Once it’s over it’s over.

And it’s all very exciting because you survived.

It’s was fun.

I enjoyed it.

We got stuck in the mud so

many times on this trip be-

cause of all of the rain. The day

when we were by the leopards, I

was wearing my orange shoes

which caught the attention of

one of the leopards. There we

were, stuck in the mud again

and still long enough for a leop-

ard to walk right up to the jeep

and sniff my shoes. Sky told me

to take my shoes off but I

wouldn’t. The leopard thought

my orange shoes were red. Red

means it is something to eat.

When the leopards are that

close, they really smell.

Don’t tell me it can’t be done — it can.

You just have to do it!

One night, a female leopard came to my tent. She

was so beautiful. I just wanted to take her into my

bed and cuddle her. You can’t do that with the

young ones. You have to be careful.

2013 BOTSWANA Year of the Leopards

I have leopard pictures that are so priceless from this trip. Leopards are so hard to find. This

time, I found 3 of them. The last time I was in Bot-

swana for leopards, Sky was also my ranger and we

didn’t find any! This year I told Sky, “That’s that! I

want a leopard. 2 years ago, you didn’t get me a

leopard.”

I call Sky “Eagle Eyes.” He has amazing sight. He

sees everything. Everything happens so fast in the

bush. When you blink, the animals are gone. It’s

over. So the last time I was here, I told Sky to get a

laser so I could see where he wants me to look. And

he did.

Every Day is an Adventure in the Bush! If you’re here to tell the tales - you survived another day...

We had 2 days of continuous rain so the soil was very soft. Every day was a real adven-

ture getting wet, looking for animals to film. If it wasn't the rains that detained us - it was

the animals themselves that we wanted to photograph.

The next day, instead of the mud holding us up, we were held hostage by a herd of ele-

phants for 3 hours. They blocked the road and we could not move. We were surrounded.

It felt like we were captured by them. One elephant came up to our car to put his trunk

under the hood of our jeep… As you know, I love danger...

Read it All

In

My New Book!

Every day is an Adventure.

It’s up to you how you use

your next 24 hours...

2013 BOTSWANA My Wild Adventures

Wild Adventures with Baroness Danuté chronicles her true life adventures on Safari in Africa!

http://www.baronessdanute.blogspot.com

Wild Adventures

Publisher

Baroness Danuté

Editor

Rozanne Taucher

Photographer

Baroness Danuté

All rights reserved.

Reproduction without the

permission of the publisher

is prohibited.

(No Baroness or animal was

harmed in the making of this

publication.)

“If we had all good moments all the time

then life would be boring.”

Eye to Eye Winner

Popular Photography

August 2013 Issue

2013 BOTSWANA Wild Adventures

Send correspondence to:

baronessdanute@gmail.com and notate:

“ISSUU - Wild Adventures”

in the subject line.

Photographs are available for purchase.

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ABOUT US:

Baroness Danuté and Rozanne Taucher

are long time friends

and creative collaborators.