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Pangolin-39.jpg

At the height of the dry season in Savute, Botswana, the bull elephants and spotted hyenas are forced to share drinking rights to the handful of pumped waterholes It is an uneasy truce, with the elephants often chasing the hyenas away and the hyenas themselves wary of being caught out by the resident lion pride. Having spent many nights over several years, shooting this nocturnal, enforced meeting place under the stars, it was always a challenge to capture the essence of this relationship, not least because I was shooting in pitch-dark from the ground, with a brief off-camera flash to illuminate my subjects. After many attempts, I was finally satisfied with this image which seemed to illustrate the wariness of both species and the atmosphere was further enhanced by a handful of low-flying bats.
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James Gifford
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James Gifford
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James Gifford
At the height of the dry season in Savute, Botswana, the bull elephants and spotted hyenas are forced to share drinking rights to the handful of pumped waterholes It is an uneasy truce, with the elephants often chasing the hyenas away and the hyenas themselves wary of being caught out by the resident lion pride. Having spent many nights over several years, shooting this nocturnal, enforced meeting place under the stars, it was always a challenge to capture the essence of this relationship, not least because I was shooting in pitch-dark from the ground, with a brief off-camera flash to illuminate my subjects. After many attempts, I was finally satisfied with this image which seemed to illustrate the wariness of both species and the atmosphere was further enhanced by a handful of low-flying bats.