Sociable weaver birds often have large nests around campsites, and are friendly little birds, a bit like our sparrows. They turned out to be good friends as well as good photo subjects! We'd been camping in the same spot for a couple of days and the birds often came to clear up our crumbs, but one day they started to mass beside a log and make a terrible racket. Looking more closely we saw there was a horned viper very well camouflaged under it. We'd collected kindling from that area so we were glad our little friends had given us the warning. The snake soon got fed up with the noise and moved on, and we were a little more careful picking up wood from then on.
LISABukalders LRPS CPAGB EFIAP
nature and wildlife photography
the hungry honey badger
I've always loved seeing honey badgers going about their business, but it had always been at a distance. I thought they were a little maligned as the thugs of the bush, with a fierce reputation - they've been known to see off lions and hyenas and are reputed to bite off the - ahem - 'tender bits' of large animals such as buffalo.
One moonlit evening I was trying to take a photo of our campsite in the Central Kalahari, Botswana, and there appeared a bold honey badger heading straight for the rubbish bag which I had temporarily and foolishly left on the ground. He picked it up and moved off a short distance and proceeded to rummage through the bag and eat whatever took his fancy. If we approached he growled and snarled very fiercely and left us in no doubt we could not take back his prize until he was finished with it. It was interesting to get close enough to observe and understand that their reputation is well deserved.
We would never deliberately feed any wild animals, it disrupts their behaviour and it's a danger to people if the wildlife sees us as a food source.