The Carnassial Shear is the pre-molars and molars that have evolved into a very effective slicer, much like a pair of scissors cut. As you can see from the image above the carnassial teeth fit together perfectly with this sharp jagged edge lions use it to cut meat into sizable chunks, the photograph on the right in the image above you can see the lion ’chewing’ with the side of his mouth, using the carnassials and cutting through skin and flesh easily.

The large canines are not really used in feeding but they are very effective weapons in the hunt, uses include gripping prey, and they are the main teeth used in the famous choke hold. This choke hold is used to kill the prey, the idea is to close the airways by clamping down on the throat, the canines lock into the meat in the neck and stop the prey pulling out of the hold. On smaller prey this may be done by covering the animals muzzle with their mouth, the lion can still breath through its nose.

The much smaller incisors are used for extra grip in the choke hold as well as for pulling and tugging on internal organs that may need more delicate handling, such as the stomach lining. The stomach lining is often removed from the carcass in tact and put a sized, this could be because the stomach contents may taint the meat. Depending on how hungry the lions are the lining may be eaten, but the stomach contents being partially digested vegetation are alway left.

After a lion kill the only evidence you will see is the left over stomach contents, the horns and hooves which cannot be digested, and the larger bones. Smaller bones are often crunched up using the carnassials and eaten, but the larger bones such as the pelvis and skull are chewed but are too large to fit into the mouth to break.

Lions see mainly in blue and greens, with highly developed night vision. This doesn’t mean they can see in the dark, if it where pitch black a lion would be blind as well. The way a lions eye is designed helps them pick up and amplify very faint light such as the that emitted from stars and the moon.

Their eyes are able to enhance this faint light through a number of methods-

Inside the eye-

• There are more rod cells than cone cells in the retina of the eye. These are photoreceptor (light-sensetive) cells, cone cells being colour sensitive and rod cells are light-sensitive. Lions having more light sensitive cells packed tightly in the fovea (most sensitive area of the retina), this means they only need 1/6th of the light that humans need to see in.

  

  Eye Shine, created by the reflective layer at the back of the eye.

• Lions have what is known as a Tapetum lucidum, this is a reflective layer of cells positioned behind the retina. This means that light entering the eye will be absorbed by either the rod or cone cells, light that passes through the retina and the photoreceptor cells is reflected back by the Tapitum lucidum and the light-sensitive cells have a second chance to absorb the light waves, in effect doubling the effectiveness of their night vision. This reflective layer results in the eerie ‘eye shine’ that you see when you shine a light on animals at night. Most animals have this layer to a varying degree, but one animal I have noticed doesn’t have eye shine is the rhino.

 Outside the Eye-

This photograph shows the white patches under lion eyes, reflecting faint light into the eye enhancing night vision.

• Sounds strange but the outside characteristics of a lions face enhance their night vision. The white strips under their eyes reflect faint light into the eyes, maximising the amount of light entering the eye.  This characteristic is a good indication that this animal is nocturnal, if you look at cheetah eyes the opposite is true. Cheetah have black tear marks reducing the glare, while they are hunting in the daylight hours. Much like the way an American Footballer puts black face paint under their eyes. 

Looking closely at the cheetahs face you will notice the black tear marks under the eye, helping reduce gland.

To sum up human senses are very different to animals relying mostly on our large brain to get us through life. Our eyesight and our hearing is fairly good while our sense of smell is very weak compared to most animals. Being humans our perception of the world around us is very narrow and it is very hard for us to imagine anything over and above what we can sense and see. For instance many snakes have heat sensitive receptors on their face, giving them a thermal image of their surroundings. Many birds can also see Ultra-Violet lightwaves, but that is a whole different story.

Lions walk in a digitate fashion, meaning that their foot bones are adapted in such a way that they walk on their toes. As opposed to humans that have a plantigrade motion, meaning we ‘plant’ our whole foot on the ground. Digitate movement has evolved specifically for silent movement and if you look at the foot structure for most predators they will have this bone structure. As an extra adaptation lions have hair in between their toes muffling the sound even more. Lions have five toes on the front foot and four on the back foot. The fifth digit on the front foot is place on the inside of the leg much higher up and is known as the dewclaw. This is used for extra grip when holding on to prey species.

Claws are among the most deadly weapons a lion possesses. A few of their uses are grabbing and holding prey, climbing and traction.

This image shows how Lion claws are sheathed. The distal phalanx pivots on the middle phalanx when the flexor tendon is contracted, this protractes and unsheathes the claw.

A common thought is that lion claws are retractable, this is in fact wrong they are protractible. Meaning that at rest the claws are sheathed, when the animal flexes certain muscles in the foot the claws are forced out. If they were retractable the lion would have to walk around tensing to keep his claws sheathed.

The main reason the claws are kept sheathed is to protect them form everyday wear and tear, keeping them sharp. If you look at a domestic dog’s claws which are non ‘retractable’ they are very blunt in comparison to a domestic cat’s claws.

Lions and other cats have to work on keeping their claws sharp and strong, you will often see domestic cats ‘pawing’ or ‘kneading’ objects such as your favorite couch. This behaviour is also necessary in lions, and you will often see them doing this against tree trunks. This is done for two reasons. Firstly to sharpen the claws, this is really more cleaning than sharpening, as the claws grow the keratin outer layer is shed and needs to be constantly removed from the claw. The second reason is to mark territory, lions have interdigital scent glands in between their toes. This means by stretching out the toes the scent is released onto whatever they happen to scratching this is usually done on a tree.

This little guy at only a few weeks old can still give you a very nasty scratch.

 Lion paws are essential to a lion and what they do, they have evolved specifically for this awesome apex predator. Without this specially designed equipment they would struggle to hunt and fit into their niche in nature.

Musth (pronounced Must) is a period of time in which the male reproductive hormone testosterone is at its highest levels in the body. Levels of testosterone can be up to 60 times higher than normal. This increase of testosterone indicates that the individual is ready to mate. Frequency and length of musth can vary greatly and I will discuss factors effecting this later on.

Firstly I will go through how you can tell if an elephant is in musth.

This Old Bull is in Musth the signs you can see here are secretion from the temporal gland on the side of the head and urine leaking on the inside of the back legs. This Elephant has been wallowing so his back legs are wet anyway and it's quite hard to see the urine.

The Photograph on the left shows an Elephant in Musth. A dark line down the side of the face, this is the first sign to look out for. This is created by the secretion of Temporin from the Temporal Glands on the side of the head. This secretion is not unique to musth bulls and can be seen on females as well as youngsters, indicating a rise in adrenalin from the animals either being excited, nervous or angry.

The Second sign to look for is on the back legs. Urine is constantly dribbled down the insides of the legs, staining them much darker than the rest of the body. This is unique to musth and emits an unmistakable odour, a sort of sharp bitter smell that is the biggest give away of a bull in musth. Humans can pick it up over a few hundred meters. 

Musth is directly influenced by the physical condition of the individual. Bulls in peak physical condition have more regular cycles which will last longer.  These bulls can be in musth any where up to a few months, and you will often find they will enter musth around about he same time every year. Whereas younger more submissive bulls will go into musth only for short periods at a time . They won’t reach the same hormone levels as the older bulls. 

Musth lengths are again effected by physical condition, if the bull can stay at his peak while in musth he will stay in musth for as long as he can sustain his condition. Bulls often lose condition while they are in musth because they can travel huge distances in search of receptive females, and they are often too preoccupied to feed and drink properly.

Two Bulls Fighting. The dominance hierarchy of bull elephants is often settled by fighting, which is really just to gauge each others strength and size rather than to hurt or injure each other. Saying that serious fights can break out and elephants are occasionally found dead with tusk wounds to the body.

Even though an elephant can enter musth as soon as he reaches sexual maturity which is usually around about 16 for males and a bit earlier for females. This doesn’t mean they will be allowed to mate as the older bulls even if not in musth will assert their dominance over them and they will then come out of musth. They will then go back to being submissive.

Musth bulls are usually thought of as very aggressive and unpredictable. This in some ways is true but it does also depends on the individual elephant. Younger bulls are much more unpredictable. All musth bulls deserve a wide berth and are not worth pushing your luck with as you are very likely to come out second best.

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Big Tuskers are now few and far between but to be able to photograph and spend time with such a gently magnificent beast is something you treasure forever.

To the casual observer elephants are largely silent animals, except for the occasional trumpet or squeal, made to show alarm or aggression. This magnificent animal comes across as silent because most of their ‘language’ is infrasound, meaning it is below the human hearing range. Humans can hear as low as 20hertz. Most of elephant communication is done between 4 and 20hertz. The occasional ‘tummy rumble’ can be heard by humans and this in effect is the highest pitch in elephant communication. 

These ‘Tummy Rumbles’ are not tummy rumbles at all they are made at the base of the trunk. Basically where the trunk enters the skull, what we would call the nose cavity. If you are ever lucky enough to be close to an elephant while they are communicating, you will notice that the base of the trunk vibrates and you ’see’ the noise without hearing it. Noise is basically vibrations that have been interpreted by our ears and all make sense in our head but travelling through air are just vibrating particles.

This infrasound communication is thought to be amplified by the huge honeycomb structured skull. The skull is honeycomb for two reasons, firstly and probably most importantly to make it light enough to carry around. If an elephant skull was made of solid bone being the size it is, it would easily be a few 100 kilograms, this would be very impractical even for the largest land mammal. The Second reason is to ampify this ’silent’ communication, even though humans can’t hear it these rumbles can be heard by other elephants as far as 4 or 5 kilometers (2 to 3 miles) away.

These ‘tummy rumbles’ can be heard 4 to 5 kilometers away as airborne communication. But that’s not the only way elephant send and receive. These vibrations can travel a lot further in a harder substrate such as soil. These siesmic waves can travel as far as 20 kilometers (12 miles) under ground.

Most of elephant communication, is made at the base of the trunk. What would look like the forehead, this means the vibrations can be amplified by the honeycomb structure of the skull. Other sounds made by elephants include trumpeting and squealing, this is done by expelling air rapidly through the trunk.

It is very interesting how elephants pick up these under ground vibrations. There are two basic methods that we know of, the first one is through bone conduction. This is when vibrations in the soil are transferred into the tips of the elephant’s toe bones and then up the leg and so on into the middle ear where the vibrations are read and translated into messages in the brain. The other method is through ‘Somatosensory Reception’ this involves vibration sensitive cells in the feet and tip of the trunk that pick up vibrations which then travel to the brain via the nerves system. This method of ‘hearing’  results in the ‘receiving stance’ as I like to call it. Often out in the bush when you are watching elephant they suddenly, without warning all freeze, motionless for sometimes minutes at a time. If you didn’t now about this seismic communication you would think that time had stopped, not a sound and the whole herd unbelievably still even the young ones seem to pick on this and listen in. Even though you can’t tell for sure you can imagine these beautiful creatures talking to herds on the other side of the reserve, it’s an unbelievable though that there is a whole conversation going on without you hearing a thing.

As far as we know there are also different calls and messages sent, these may include warnings rumbles, aggressive rumbles, rumbles made by females in estrus, rumbles made by bulls in musth, and probably many many more that humans can’t even start to imagine.

These are unbelievable animals, and we have only scratched the surface of their world. People often think and relate to animals in a human way of thinking, the truth is that compared to animals our own senses are far inferior. Huge respect has to be given to the creatures of earth-

There is still so much we don’t know!

Amazing studies have been done by Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, in places like Etosha, to find out more about elephant communication-

Read her book- The Elephant’s Secret Sense: The Hidden Life of the Wild Herds of Africa.

Elephants are usually peaceful animals, this young female was a little bit wary of me being so close. She was pretending to feed while keeping an eye on me just to make sure I was not a threat to her.

Victoria Falls is designated as a World Heritage Site. It is surrounded by the 2 340 ha Victoria Falls National Park and the Zambezi National Park, which is 57 000 ha. This area is home to a diverse and amazing amount of wildlife as well as breath taking scenery, along the beautiful Zambezi river. Unfortunately this area has seen a huge amount of illegal poaching in the last few years. This is both animal poaching and wood poaching.

The animal meat trade is growing in Zimbabwe, animals such duiker, warthog, impala, kudu, wildebeest and even buffalo are among a few of the species hardest hit.
Most of this poaching is done through snares or wire traps, used to suffocate and starve animals to death. Unfortunately snares are not species specific and will trap any animal that is unlucky enough to walk by. Other animals such as wild dogs, leopard, lion are often injured and even killed by snares. The larger animals are strong enough to break the anchor of the snare, and bits of wire are often left caught around their legs or neck and they slowly starve to death.

Wood poaching sounds like a strange concept but it is a big problem in the Vic Falls area. As the area’s main income is tourism, hardwood is collected by the locals, it is then carved and crafted into souvenirs that are sold to tourist to Vic Falls. Many indigenous trees are being felled to fuel this industry, these trees include the African Ebony with its beautiful dark brown heartwood, the Pod Mahogany with its red-brown heartwood and the Mukwa with its stunning light brown heartwood.

The unit was established in 1999, by professional guide and safari operator Charles Brightman, and the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.  
VFAPU work closely with the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the anti-poaching unit patrol roughly a 50 square kilometer around the victoria Falls area.
The main focus of the VFAPU is the removal of wire snares and the apprehension of poachers. A lot of time and energy is also spent on educating the local population on the benefits of conservation, and the effects on natural resources. With the understanding that many people have been driven to poaching by the economic hardships of Zimbabwe, and that is why the VFAPU has been working on job creation and economic development to try and rehabilitate offenders rather than taking a purely punitive stance   

The unit relies solely on private funding from donors and sponsors. It receives no funding from the government. The long term goal is to receive international funding so they can expand their area of operation, but right now the operation is extremely short of funds. 
Please if you feel like making a donation of any size contact Charles at the address below or contact me and we will assist in getting you in touch with the right people.

Successes to date include the recovery of 19300 wire snares and the arrest of 400 poachers.

Victoria Falls Anti Poaching Unit (VFAPU)
PO Box CT 544
Victoria Falls
Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax: +263 13 45821
Cell No: +263 11209144
Email: cat@yoafrica.com
Website: http://www.vfapu.org/index.html

Choosing the right wildlife photography equipment can be a long and time consuming job, scrolling through reviews and comments about each camera and each lens available on the market.
I use a Canon 40D body, with my main lens the Canon 100-400mm F/5.6, I also have the Canon 17-55mm lens as well as my more basic and general use lens a Tamron 55-200mm.

In my personal experience there are three major functions a wildlife camera and lens need: 

1. Aperture- or F-stop is one of the most important things about a lens, it indirectly effects almost everything about photography.
   The lower the number e.g. F/2.8 the better, this often comes at a great price though, generally the fixed telephoto lenses have the lower F-stops.
   The lower the number the wider the aperture, this means that more light can be let into the lens and therefore the shutter speed can be quicker without effect the light let into the lens. This helps to reduce camera shake causing blurry photos, it also helps when shooting in low light conditions.
   Camera Shake is also a big thing in wildlife photography, it very often ruins a great photographic opportunity. That’s why something to steady your camera and lens is often a huge help in the field, these could come in the form of a tripod or monopod. Both good options, but as I know from being a guide and a photographer, those options don’t work in a vehicle (on game drives), and only really show their true potential if you have space and time to set up your shot e.g. Landscape photos. What I would recommend is a sand bag or something of that nature to rest the lens on. This is a photo saver and is definitely worth the investment. Or otherwise a home-made rest will do the job just as well, e.g. bag of rice.
2. Zoom- Personally  I think another important function is the zoom of a lens.
   Especially when shooting wild animals, you can’t always get up close and personal, because one of two things will happen. You chase the animal or the animal chases you. Which ever way your close encounter turns out its very hard to get up close without disturbing the animals. That is why I use a 400mm lens, and I would say a 400mm zoom is the minimum needed if you are serious about getting the great shots.
3. Speed- This is very important and this heading encompasses quite a few things.

Firstly and most importantly the speed of you. I feel it is very important for you to know your way around your camera and lens. No matter if your equipment is top of the range, best that money can buy, or point and click stuff, the animals won’t wait around for you to turn on and set up, I have found animals can be very inconsiderate when it comes to that sort of thing. If you know your way around the camera you are much more likely to actually be ready for the once in life time opportunity when it does come around.
Secondly, speed of the lens.  By this I mean the speed of the focus on the lens. For example my Canon 100-400mm lens has focusing ranges, so if the object you are trying to focus on is less than 6.5m you can flip a switch on the actual lens and narrow down and cut out what I call focus searching, where the lens searches for something to focus on, this often happens when trying to focus through branches or grass.
Thirdly, speed of the camera. How many photos per second your camera can take. This helps when trying to photograph animals running. This is not as important as the first two, but still important to consider. 

There is obviously much much more to photography, but these are the three basic things I think about when wildlife photography is conserned.

See examples of Wildlife Photography taken with this equipment at:-

www.danielpeel-phototgraphy.com