We are still wondering what could be the hippo reasons to roll like a barrel? It might be because of some ticklings or insect bites that it could not scratch, who knows?

Planetstillalive-Gallery of Mammals

In Africa, Cheetah lives in open areas like savannah, from there it can better observe its future preys, like impalas when hunting and it also has an overview on possible predators overall when it has cubs.

Most of the time, if there is a rocky bump, the cheetah sits at the top to look around.

It is a very slim mammal with long legs, it can run very fast (around 90 km/h and even a bit more) but on a short distance when trying to catch antelopes… during these moments the cubs are hidden in the grass.

It’s characteristic is the black “painted” tears from the corner of its eyes

The cheetah belongs to cats group; it is among the most endangered species.

Looking at the cubs on my picture, their long grey fur lets me think they should be around 2 months old.

This happened during a safari, we were waiting in the savannah to take pictures of a herd of Zebras, when suddenly some elands came running and jumping one after the other very close to us. These animals, at least the male can jump up to 2m and the young one 3m.

I am not enough expert to say if they were male or/and female as both have horns and they might have been disturbed by something.

For me it was exceptional to get these photos, as since I travel in Africa, elands are very shy and move far away as soon as they see a vehicle.

planetstillalive -gallery of  Elands

May 2012, in Zimbabwe, while having a boat trip from Ruckomechi Camp Lodge on Lower Zambezi, we peered at a Goliath Heron ready to fly  and began to take pictures when he  arrived flying beyond a hippo with her baby. The female hippo suddenly aware of a danger came nearer her baby and tried first to protect him, before pushing him to hide into the water. It seems the Goliath Heron did not notice anything, for him life always goes on. »

It was 5 O’ clock in the morning when I arrived at the elephant point of Kaziranga. The sun was very shy behind the trees and the morning was still misty. After climbing some steps, I was comfortably seated on my huge elephant and the stroll could start for two hours.

Kaziranga NP in India is the place with the greatest concentration of  One-horned rhinos. We passed among them peacefully, being now a  part of the elephant . It was a very strange feeling to be seen like  an animal among the others and to approach them so near without any fear, but respect…

“Cockscomb Basin”, is a Wildlife Sanctuary Park in Belize with luxurious vegetation. It is full of birds like “Hooded Orioles”, “woodpeckers” and many raptors. The must of this park is a small pond, well hidden under the trees but easy to find. There, sitting on the near branches at a few meters of me, couples of Boat-billed Herons were peacefully looking around without any fear or stress. It was incredible and for me the first time in my life that I could approach these strange birds, which normally escape at the first noise.

The speciality of this striped butterfly is to let us believe that he has 2 heads, one in front and one behind, the one behind is in fact a tail with a false antenna moving slightly. The purpose of this is to trick the birds when staying on leaves by protecting his true head from their attacks and to escape from them.

When I heard about our trip to “Crocodile Market”, I first thought it was probably a place to sell to tourists some bags and belts made of crocodile skin! In fact I was completely mistaking…

It was sunset time when we had a surprising boat trip on the Lake Chamo. I could not have imagined that the bank on the other side of the lake would be covered with so huge Nile crocodiles, some of them measuring up to 6 meters… They were hundreds of massive reptiles lying in the sun with the mouths wide open to regulate their temperature. When the boat approached them at few meters, I felt suddenly a current of adrenalin. It was really impressive … but I “survive”!!!

I had the chance to see the Shoe-billed Stork in Uganda. He is not a migratory bird and move to another zone only if the food is lacking. This extraordinary animal is seriously endangered, the total number of them is between 11000 and 15000, it is only an estimation as it is very difficult to count them (and I had not enough time!!!!)

The Shoe-billed Stork is a very curious solitary bird also called Whale-Headed Stork, he is endemic to East and Central Africa. His size is gigantic for a bird and can be more than  130 cm. His bill looks like a wooden shoe but curved at the end. His eyes are funny, very big sharp and round. He used to inhabit swamps or marshes with papyrus and where the water is lacking of oxygen; the fishes then come near the surface and give him a better chance to catch them. His way for hunting is to wait, look and listen. When he got a prey, he often sways his head to decapitate it before swallowing