One of the earliest feature length wildlife movies, and still one of the best is ‘Animals Are Beautiful People’ by famed director/producer Jamie Uys (of ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’). This film is one of the factors that drove me to be a wildlife photographer, and it’s wonderful family fun as well. It features animals … including elephants… getting drunk on marula berries that have fermented on the tree. It’s on special from Amazon LINK

Tomorrow at 11AM I am being interviewed by Michigan Entrepreneur TV. Stations and air schedule is yet to be determined.

I have never had a more emotional wildlife experience in all of my years of going on safaris. In Feb 2008, we encountered a cheetah mother with 4 adult male cubs near Ndutu Lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in the Serengeti eco-system. That in itself is an amazing occurance since only 1 out of 20 cheetahs survive to adulthood. A mother that raises 4 cubs to adult size is remarkable and something our guides had never seen in their combined 70 years of experience. For a couple days we kept track of what they were up to by checking out their territory early in the morning and late in the afternoon. We watched mom teaching them to hunt and watched them play.

In February 2009 I immediately asked about and searched out the brothers. We found that one of the brothers had disappeared and they of course by this time the remaining three were on their own ( we were not able to locate the mother). They provided me with another unique experience by climbing trees to search the landscape for prey. I had never see or heard of cheetahs in trees (they have dog like paws), but they provided me with shots on successive days in trees that were accessible for their limited climbing ability. 

In May 2009 upon arrival at Ndutu, I again asked about and sought out the brothers. I was truly excited when we finally located them on the second day, but my excitement turned to shock and amazement as they chose our visit as the time for 2 of the brothers to turn on the third. In successively more violent attacks, it appeared as though they were trying to kill him. The fury, wailing, and intensity was more reality than I, my fellow travelers and even our guides were able to handle. In the end, we intervened by running the attackers off the severely injured brother. We have no idea if they came back later to finish him off or if the victim could survive the injuries, and were at at total loss at what we had witnessed.

Through our guides, we later learned from a researcher that has followed the brothers from birth that in fact they were not brothers. Two of the original cubs were from another mother, and the mother we met in Feb 2008, raised them and her own 2 as her own. The researcher said that it is not uncommon for male cheetahs to bond when young and then separate at early adulthood. The separation is often violent and sometimes ends in death. I will continue to inquire to find out if the injured cheetah survived. I have video of some of the attacks that will be posted soon.

Bodes well for an awesome trip.

I will never tire of heading to Africa to experience what thrills the Serengeti will provide us one more time. Like Christmas Eve when I was a kid, the feelings are similar yet it’s different every time. The only thing that never changes is the wonderful Tanzanian friends that welcome us each time with warmth and enthusiasm. Back on June 2, 2009.

International wildlife and travel photographer, William Cowger of Troy, Michigan, is proud to announce a photography exhibit that provides a visual adventure of African wildlife that will run from Friday April 17 through June 18, 2009 at the Paramount Gallery at 22635 Woodward Ave Ferndale, MI . The hours of the gallery are from 9AM-5PM M-T and 9AM-6PM Fridays. The Grand Opening will be Friday May 15 from 5PM-7PM.

An updated exhibit of ‘Cats Being Cats’ is sure to whet the appetite of the most savvy art, wildlife, travel and photography enthusiast. The exhibit consists of 26 prints of African cats (lions, cheetahs, leopards, and servals) doing what cats do, and a continuously running video of safari adventures. Witness the famous tree climbing lions of Tanzania, see the cats hunting, nurturing, posing, feeding, and resting above as well as on the endless plains. For the first time anywhere see tree climbing cheetahs as well.

Get the feel of the adventure of a lifetime - maybe to the point of deciding to actually go on safari, therefore experiencing first hand Mr. Cowger’s thrilling, once in a lifetime photo safaris and workshops (held several times each year). Be sure to ask for details or view them for yourself at Mr. Cowger’s website: www.ThePhotoSafari.com

Crain’s today published an article on how I turned my love of travel and photography into a safari travel business. It appears in their new on-line publication ‘Detroit Make It Here’. The link is
article

One of the greatest rewardsof my trips to Africa is managing and monitoring the projects my travelers and fellow Rotarians are implementing at a primary school (equivalent of 1st through 7th grade) in Usa River Tanzania. This school has more than 800 students, classrooms with as many as 120 children, no electricity, 3-4 children at every desk. Yet, they all get to school every day with clean uniform after walking up to 5 miles and are obviously dedicated to learn and behave. It is because of these basic factors that my fellow travelers started raising funds in support of what we can do to make their school environment more conducive to education. To that end we have implemented a number of projects. The most recent project is building a hand washing station. There was a single spigot for all 800 children to wash their hands and their lunch plates. A photo of the chaos and the mess makes it obvious that many went without washing.


The new station was nearing completion when I was there 3 weeks ago and I am told that it has now been completed. (I will post photos as soon as they are available).

The next major projects are to fill and cap the floors in three of the classrooms (cement is crumbling) and to build a kitchen to replace the lean-to where large pots of corn and beans are heated over an open wood fire. The cost of fixing a classroom floor is $485 each and the estimated cost of building a kitchen with a wood stove and running water is $8628.00 US.

I have finally posted the photos from the Feb/Mar 2009 Safari. The link is http://www.acaciastock.com/gallery.php?gid=76 (can be reached via the ‘Stock’ tab on my website). A few of the highlights are attached.

The nature highlight of the trip was not the carnivores hunting and eating, nor the 10’s of thousands in the migration, but rather this little dung beetle. I had seen them on TV & the movies, but never in person. Nature’s tiny manure spreader rolled this ball more than 15 yards, and then buried it by crawling underneath and digging the hole under it to eventually lay it’s eggs inside it.