Meet one of my neighbours - a blue wildebeest or gnu (Connochaetes taurinus). The estate I live in borders onto the Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve, an Eden of landscapes, rivers, waterfalls, forests, plants … and animals. Managed by WESSA (the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) – a non-government organisation caring for the earth since 1926, I have enjoyed a number of hikes through the area – and plan to undertake many more. Having grown up on a southern African farm, I enjoy returning to nature where one can feel relaxed and free with only the great outdoors and its natural inhabitants for company. I have at home a splendid woodcut of zebras and wildebeest by local artist John Moore, and always felt the striping on the wildebeest was a little exaggerated. Of course I’d seen wildebeest in the wild, but never so closely and as clearly as this, and as you can see the striping is very distinct. The artist got it right, and favouring the same grassland habitat as the zebra, they are natural companions in the wild. The gnu is a beautifully ugly animal, here’s how comic songsters Flanders and Swann immortalised the beast:
I'm a Gnu,
I'm a Gnu
The g-nicest work of g-nature in the zoo
I'm a Gnu,
How do you do
You really ought to k-now w-ho's w-ho's
I'm a Gnu,
Spelt G-N-U
I'm g-not a Camel or a Kangaroo
So let me introduce,
I'm g-neither man nor moose
Oh g-no g-no g-no I'm a Gnu
Wildlife photography can be something of a challenge and often the best results are obtained with strong telephoto lenses. The subject here is used to close human presences, and with a standard lens I was able to capture this beautiful specimen.
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