Charging black rhino

Just on my way out the door, here's the last photo taken in Etosha late last year. New pix from Kgalagadi to follow.



A

Hi Andrew
My kinda photo,I love rhino (hense the e-mail address) and this is a belter, Firstly its very difficult to find black rhino in the wild and secondly its very difficult to get them doing something rather than running away,May like abit more contrast but a great image as is,What is the story behind the charge-was it a false charge or was he after something else,Do you know what the light area is on the nostril

Hi Dave - very much a real charge, straight at us in the car. We were just driving back to the camp late in the evening when we rounded a bend and came across him out in the open on the Etosha pan. He came right at us from 100m or so. It doesn't take much to provoke a charge, I just don't think we were expecting to meet each other in that location at that time of day. I shot off 8 frames before we had to shift, pretty sharpish. This isn't the closest but has the best sense of his intentions.

The standard advice when on foot is to stay still til the last minute as their eyesight is not great and they may just be heading in your general direction. A car (probably looks a bit like a rhino to them?) doesn't help you hide, but enables a quicker exit from the scene if necessary.

I'm sure I'll never forget the sight in the rear view mirror, "objects may closer than they appear" and all that...

ps - the bright spot around the nostril is known as "snot" - maybe he had a man-cold and was feeling a bit grumpy...

excellent tale and photo. Like the action and the off-centre composition.excellent! Pete

Hi Andrew
a great picture and a wonderful experience.
John
Aberdeen