Phil Perry Wildlife Photography
Welcome to Phil Perry's Wildlife Photography website.
I am a wildlife photographer based in Swaziland, southern Africa.
The main part of the website is galleries of wildlife photographs taken on my many safaris through Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia) as well as photos taken in various parts of Europe, especially southern Portugal. Wildlife from other parts of the world will also feature as I venture further afield (India, Seychelles, etc). For a number of years I specialised in photographing Leopards. I was fortunate to be able to follow several leopards in Sabi Sands for about 4 years - watching them hunting, mating, cubs growing up and having their own cubs.
The aim of the site is to promote wildlife conservation through wildlife photography - especially in Africa.
Added Value for Eco-Tourism : Wildlife Photography Hides/Blinds. I am convinced that many eco-tourist enterprises can add significantly to their income by building well positioned, well designed photographic hides/blinds. Wildlife photographers will be more than willing to pay for the use of hides that promise reliable, excellent views and photography opportunities of interesting species. To encourage this I have set up a section on this website (Hides and Blinds) giving more information on the subject. Long-term I hope to be able to create a database of hide designs and details of the locations of good photography hides.
November 2009: One of my photographs has just been Highly Honored in the Landscape Category in the 2009 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards and will be featured in Nature's Best's high definition video displayed within the exhibition area from November 12th to May 3rd, 2010 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Only 48 photographs are featured in this exhibit. This display features just 48 photographs of the more than 25,000 pictures entered. My photo was taken at Malolotja Nature Reserve in Swaziland and shows a group of Blesbok silhouetted against a mountain backdrop that includes Emlembe, the highest point in Swaziland.
July 2010: Very sad news from Sabi Sands. Makhubela was killed by a male leopard that had moved into the Western sector. Makhubela was one of Shangwa's female cubs, who had grown into a fine female leopard. When she was killed she was still looking after a cub. Sadly the cub would have been too young to look after itself without its mother. This demonstrates why hunting of leopards is so damaging to the leopard population (as shown by a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) study at Phinda in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa). When a male is killed by hunters then new itinerant males move into the deceased leopard's territory. They often kill any leopard cubs they find. But females are wary of these new males as they do not know if they can rely on them in the long term. So despite the fact that they might mate with them they rarely produce cubs. Most of the itinerant males are not powerful enough to hold the new territory and so lots of males come and go until a really strong male finally takes over the territory. Then the females can settle down again and raise cubs. So thre death of one male can cause a period of a year or more when females do not breed. In Sabi Sands the death at the end of last year of Wallys, territorial male for many years, caused a vacant territory to become available. Since then a number of different males have come to the Western sector to stake their claim. But most are not strong enough and even today it is not clear who will eventually take over from Wallys as 'Top Cat'. Until that happens all the cubs in the area are at risk and the females will remain wary.
Makhubela at 26 months
Upcoming Photo Trip : September 2010 - Brazil's Pantanal in search of Jaguars !
Latest Photos: Kenya 2009 Photos from a fabulous trip to Shaba, Buffalo Springs, Lewa Conservancy, Aberdares and Lake Nakuru. See 2 million flamingos ! !
Other News: The famous South African bird guide 'Roberts' is producing an online version - to which I am contributing a number of photographs (over 300 so far). For more on this project see: Roberts Online
Also check out my two new websites and blog: Leopard.com.pt A new sister site promoting wildlife photography, conservation and eco-tourism in Portugal and Africa. This site is still in the early stages of development. Also Lince-Iberico Another new sister-website dedicated to focussing attention on the plight of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) (Portuguese: El lince-iberico / Spanish: El lince iberico). Its conservation status is 'Critically Endangered' and it is the world's rarest species of cat. This site is running - but still requires a lot of development. See my Wildlife Conservation Blog whic deals with a wide range of conservation issues and make thought provoking suggestions as to what needs to be done.
See my other pages:
Leopards of Sabi Sands Gallery
Email Contact: phil@pperrywildlifephotos.org.sz
Webmaster: Phil Perry - Copyright © 2010
