6
Votes
Robert Henderson's picture

Closing In

During the "Great Migration" the massive herds of wildebeest cross the Mara River in Tanzania multiple times over the course of the year. With every crossing, several wildebeest are lost to the enormous 6m long Nile Crocodiles that infest the river. Most of the time you don't see the crocodile until after the attack. But in this case, the wildebeest had become isolated from the herd, and was very aware the attack was coming.

I took the image with a Canon 7D Mark II, with an EF 100 - 400 mm f/4.5 - 5.6L IS II USM lens, with a 1.4X III teleconverter. The exposure settings were 1/800 sec, f/8.0, ISO 400, 560 mm, hand held.

Canon 7D Mark II
560 mm · f/8 · 1/800 sec · ISO 400
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2 Comments

Great shot. The eyes of the wildebeest transmit the panic at the danger of the crocodile. Life and death in the natural realm is normalcy.
congratulations and my liked

Thanks Mariano!

When you watch wildlife documentaries of the wildebeest crossings, y
ou don't feel the emotional intensity of the animals. They understand the danger, but eventually plunge into the river anyway. The crocodiles are implacable predators who seem free of any emotion, but the wildebeest are clearly terrified. But for every wildebeest that is taken, another thousand make it across successfully, and the herd survives!

Thanks again. Bob