[Wildlife] Amazing, Intimate Shots of Lions In Their Natural Habitat

Brothers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas make quite the team. They're wildlife photographers based in Britain who have devised some clever means to get closer to some of the world's most dangerous animals. In 2009, they created a remote-controlled camera nicknamed BeetleCam and set out to photograph animals in their natural habitat. Armed with the knowledge they gained from the first trip, they went back a second time, and their results are nothing short of stunning.

With the goal of creating never-before seen wildlife photos in mind, Will and Matt set out to create an armored, remote controlled camera buggy that would be able to get up close and personal with the lions of the Masai Mara. Will writes:

"I set to work building two new BeetleCams; one with an armoured, lion-proof (hopefully) carapace and one with more advanced capabilities including HD video recording, wireless live-view and remotely operated camera tilt.

Matt once again joined me and we headed for the Masai Mara in Kenya, home to an astonishing density of very large lions!

Two weeks later, our armoured BeetleCam was scarred and battered; the screws that held it together were losing their thread and the carapace was covered in scratches and bite marks. However, we could breathe a sigh of relief because we had reached the end of our trip and we hadn’t lost a camera this time! We returned home with a set of images that exceeded all our expectations and plenty of ideas for BeetleCam’s next adventure!"

 

 

I highly recommend that you pay their website and blog a visit. I know I just lost a good hour poking around while I was writing this post! There are some truly remarkable images, the likes of which I haven't seen before. Just goes to show a little ingenuity combined with some beefed up remote-controlled vehicles can go a long, long way.