Latest / Wildlife and Adventure Photography / Finding Wildlife: How to Track Animals and Anticipate Their Behaviour

Transcript

Finding Wildlife: How to Track Animals and Anticipate Their Behaviour · Wildlife and Adventure Photography

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hello again and welcome to uh another podcast.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Gray Milliet here.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, if you look on my Bud Sprout website, you'll see an inquiry from Jim in Alabama that came through um a few weeks ago now.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to respond to it because he raised some very important points.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the uh uh the purpose of this particular um podcast.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And before I go into it, if you do have any questions, anything you'd like me to cover, maybe something that has got you thinking after listening to uh another episode, then please get in touch.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love to hear from people, and it does help me to make these podcasts relevant to what people want to uh learn about.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: So Jim um was talking about getting into photography back in the 70s, I think it was, and um, he was really interested in tracking animals, and he looked up a book at the time, I think it was recommended by Kodak, if you want to remember what he said, and it basically said just research the animal, which wasn't exactly what he was looking for from this particular book.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm gonna cover in this podcast is to go over a few things which I have covered elsewhere, and um, it never does any harm to grow them again, and also just to make the point that I am not a tracker, so with certain animals, I've spent a lot of time with them, so I know what the signs are.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but uh with other animals, I haven't spent so much time with them, and I use professional guides a lot, people who know the animals know how to read the signs, and I am constantly learning from uh these people.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not putting myself up as an expert when it comes to tracking animals, but I am very happy to share what I know about tracking different types of animals and also the process that, as photographers, I think is the correct one to go through in order to make sure we get the best results and the best outcomes when we're hoping to photograph animals.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um I'm gonna start with uh finding wildlife basically.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where should you look?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, photographing animals is one thing, but it's really hard to photograph them if you can't actually find them.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are the kinds of things that we need to think about?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've spoken about timing because some animals are only in an area for a certain part of the year, so Humpback Wales past Sydney is the example I often give.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's a good place to start, and that's kind of a kind of broad brush chip.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: But once you get beyond that, what are the other things you need to think about?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So think about habitat.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where would the species that you want to photograph expect to find food, water, shelter, or nesting sites?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, what are the basic needs that they have to fulfill in order to survive?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a massive clue and a massive indication of where we need to start looking.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, I don't know what animals you're interested in, but if you are interested in certain animals, then this is a good place to start.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: What are what is the habitat that they need in order to survive?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then think about their daily routine.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, when is the animal likely to be active?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, obviously, some animals feed at night, some like to feed during the day.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when do they feed?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: When do they rest?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: When do they travel?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when do they return to cover?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, lions are a classic.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was in Namibia again recently, and lions tend to hunt around twilight and overnight and the early hours, but during the day, if you're seeing them, particularly if you find them in the morning and it's beginning to warm up, the chances are they're gonna be getting nice and comfy because they're gonna spend the rest of the day asleep if they're not disturbed.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is the daily routine?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because not only is that telling you when you're likely to see them, but also what kind of photography, what are the things you need to consider in your photography?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna emphasize again that I do not recommend flash photography with wildlife of any species, I think it's uh a major mistake.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are looking at animals that are only active in low light environments, then you really need to think about how you're gonna handle that in a way that doesn't distress the animal because that's a really important aspect to it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, look for indirect evidence, or another word for that is spore.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking at tracks, droppings, it could be feathers, there might be damage to plants or trees caused by uh feeding, there might be nests.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: You might also be uh listening for calls.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, an example I've given before, when I was in India and we were looking for tigers, so we're in a forest, um, it's not massively thick in places, but it's you know, forest and open land.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we're also on sandy ground, so you're gonna get paw prints, and I'll come back to prints in a in a moment.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one indication that a tiger is in the area, but the really important signal we were listening for was alarm calls from other animals.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are interested in predators, what is the environment that they are working in?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: What do the prey animals do to warn one another?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you get into species cooperation, so um, species will combine and create warning calls so that all of the species in the area know that there's a predator about.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: How does that apply to the animal that you're interested in?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so all of these things indicate an animal's presence.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's also natural corridors, so again, animals will often tend to use specific trails.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: There might be woodland edges they prefer, they might be looking at gaps in hedges, routes between feeding and resting areas can be really good places to observe.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And again, think about it.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you again, if you're thinking about um a uh a predator that uses ambush, so snakes, some snakes maybe, but um ambush predators, they'll tend to go near those tracks that are sometimes pretty well defined.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember with my house in France, uh, when I was cutting the grass and I'd let the edges get really long, I could very clearly see the animal runs.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they were mostly from things like hares, but occasionally they'd be left by deer.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um, if you're in an area or you visit areas where animals move about regularly, it's quite easy to start seeing where the runs are once you start looking for them.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and as I've said, other animals often give a clue.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it could be alarm calls, it could be changes in their behavior.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe birds suddenly start making a noise, or um, something else goes happens nearby, that there's a change in the atmosphere, there's a change in the environment that tells you that other animals are now suddenly aware that there is danger and that they're on alert.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So these are the kind of things to start to understand, and these are the kind of things that if you are interested in a particular species, really start learning there about their habitat, their environment.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So diving in a little bit deeper, looking at the uh the landscape, what are the things you're looking for?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, tracks, for example, are great, but when you see some tracks, do you know which direction they're going in?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, some animals where they have a clear paw print, so for example, um a lion or a hyena, um a cheetah, anything like that, you've got a kind of pad on the heel and then the pads on the fingers, and maybe even marks and claws if they're extended.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that gives you a clear direction which way the animal is moving.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an animal that is a little bit more, or let's say less obvious, so for example, an elephant, uh, elephants, if you look at the footprints, the print from the front foot is relatively round, and the print from the back foot is more like a human foot, and it's to do the way that the uh um the feet have been designed to handle the weight of the animal at that particular point.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: But which direction are they going?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, something to remember is that if you're in sand, especially, as we lift our foot up, we tend to kick sand forward.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't believe me, just walk through some sand yourself, and you'll see that as you lift your foot up, you tend to kick a little bit of sand forward, and that's a clue about which direction you're going.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can also look at how strong the imprint is from one part of the foot to the other.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So these are all things to give you clues about which direction the animal is going, which obviously is pretty important.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the next thing is how fresh they are.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, if you're in something like sand or wet mud, fresh prints are going to be very sharp, very well defined.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sand's really good because if you've got a nice sharp imprint, the chances are that's a recent um print because as soon as you start getting wind-blowing dry sand, that um print becomes much harder to see the definition.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that might be the the marks of the underside of the foot in the case of an elephant.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, what's the material that the animal is leaving an imprint in?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that will give you some idea of how recent they are, how fresh they are.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are other tracks going across the top of them?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do they do those prints go across the tops of other prints?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, all of these are really important things.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, groups of tracks are also useful because that might give you an indication about the number of animals, the types of animals.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember being in Zimbabwe where we picked up some prints, and it was a set of prints from an adult zebra, a zebra calf, and lion prints.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the lion prints were following the zebra, and we didn't get a uh like a constant set of tracks all the way.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: We sort of would follow them for a while, then the material would change, and they weren't it was much harder to see any kind of imprints, and then we'd pick them up again, we'd kind of guess which way with they were going, and we'd be looking out and picking up.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: But these are the kind of clues that you're also looking for.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's also feeding signs and the heights and location of browsing, so animals like elephants, for example, can be um in fact very destructive, they'll often break branches, things like that, often for the fun of it, but you get clear signs that the animals have been there.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Droppings are great because their condition will reveal a lot.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Fresh droppings, again, it will depend a little bit on the animal, but this is pretty much I think true across the board, will tend to be moist and they'll tend to be warm.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got warm, moist droppings, the chances are that the animal that made them is not very far away.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, as time goes on, those droppings will tend to dry out.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on where you are, if they're exposed to ultraviolet, they might turn from a dark colour to more of a chalky white colour.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is the kind of stuff to understand.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm not giving you rules here, but I'm just giving you ideas of things to think about.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've also noticed with dung beetles, this is in African, this is just personal observation, so I don't know how true it is, but I noticed that the actual species of dung beetle tended to change depending on how fresh the uh the dung was.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: This was tracking elephants.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, these kind of things can give you clues about how recent um that particular event happened.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, obviously, there are calls and sounds, so again, if an animal is in the area, a particularly a predator, or but any animal, you might well hear it.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's always good to be very aware, listen to what's going on.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Even something as big as an elephant can be very close to you, and you have no idea it's there.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you really need to be aware.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And any change in the environment suggests that an animal might have gone through.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: The key thing here is not to rely on one indication, it's to get a broader understanding of the kind of things that are left behind, the kind of spore that you might be might expect, depending on the animal it is you're interested in, and then look for combinations because the more clues that you have that point to, let's say, an uh an animal going through recently, the more reliable uh that information is likely to be.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really important, and obviously, another one.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to switch to whales just for a moment because obviously, um, if you're on water, you don't tend to get uh the broken vegetation, you don't get usually dung lying on the ocean, but there are other clues.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you you're looking for primarily you're looking for blows, that's when the the uh whale exhales, so that looks as a like a plume of steam often.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um obviously a breaching whale is pretty obvious there's a whale there.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um you may also get what we call footprints, but it's um like it kind of looks like oil is on the surface, it actually isn't, it's just the way the surface uh flattens out when an ale uh a whale has um partially surfaced as it's been breathing, as it's been swimming, and then move forward.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So those are indications that a whale is very, very close because those those footprints disappear after a few minutes.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, beyond that, you are really pretty much looking out for blows or breaching whales.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, understanding what you're looking for helps you to set your expectations correctly as well.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, um four things to watch for.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, when you find an animal, what is it doing now?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is it feeding?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this also applies to time of day.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's it likely to be doing?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, is it likely to be feeding, resting, traveling?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you can see it, is it watching something?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, in the case of a predator, it might be aware of a prey animal, it might be sizing up whether or not to um go for it.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is it interacting with another animal?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you can also get really interesting interactions.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, elephants, for example, have an amazing family and hierarchical structure, and there are in fact some very intimate greetings that go on between elephants of the same family, and they're amazing things to watch.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, this again is all about understanding the species that you're interested in and then looking for the kind of behaviors that you might see, which isn't always hunting, you know, there's lots of other things that happen too.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: The point is that the current activity that you're you're watching gives you an indication of what might be happening next.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I've also given the clue about birds.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: If they still tend to a lot of birds will tend to squat slightly before they jump off a branch, you know, fly off, so that can give you an indication too, which obviously, from a photography perspective, means that you might be able to get that shot.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what's influencing its behavior?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it could be food, as I've already mentioned, could be water, it could be the weather, it could be other animals in the area.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: If it's a prey animal and it suddenly feels there might be a predator around or it's heard an alarm call from something else, um, that would pose potential threat.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that can lead to certain behaviors.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Are they young in the area?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So behavior makes sense when you begin to understand what the animal is responding to, and that helps you to anticipate what's likely to be happening uh next.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what's changing?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, looking at changes in behaviour, what about what's going on with an animal that repeatedly looks in one direction?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, something there has attracted its attention.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when it stops feeding?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when it becomes more alert or it changes its posture?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So often animals will pick up on other things going on, potentially again predators that you might not be aware of.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really important to watch what the animal is doing when you find it, because again, that gives you a clue about what is likely to be happening next.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what I'd suggest you do, and my recommendation here is to learn what you can.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's lots and lots of video about on all sorts of animals, so learn what you can.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you can go with someone who's experienced, an experienced guide, that is really worthwhile because they also can begin to educate more in more of the sort of details and subtleties of how a particular animal um behaves.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does that mean from a photography point of view?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously, it helps you to position yourself if you're able to change position before the uh any action begins.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can certainly get yourself ready to go, and that means you can choose a focal length that not only gets the animal as it is now, but if it's likely to move quickly, you can give yourself a little bit of extra room in the frame to capture that whole movement without having to start panning.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously get your settings correct in advance.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you want to be watching.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of wildlife photography is about observation.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, one thing so, in a recent trip, um, I so I generally use DSLR for um wildlife photography.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I use it for is I'll tend to use the lens as a telescope, so I spend a lot of time just watching what's going on through the lens through my 400mm, and that allows me getting quite close.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, the camera's turned off, so there's no issue.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I had an issue with my DSLR and had to switch to a mirrorless um in the last trip.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what I realized was I became very sensitive about how much I was using the monitor because I'm burning power all the time, and I've got plenty of power in the camera, but even so, I realized that I couldn't quite use the mirrorless in the same way I was using the TSLR to just watch what was going on without any intention at that stage of taking a photograph.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was just trying to understand what was going on in that situation.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: So watching the behaviors is really important, keeping an eye on what's going on is really important, and um yeah, you know, you don't, I mean you need to be ready to go at any point, but recognize a lot of what you're doing with wildlife photography is actually watching before you're taking um before you're taking photographs.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um what can photographers learn from hunters?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I do, you know, I have I have met various hunters.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not pro-hunting.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um I always feel there's got to be a better way.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I question the motives of some people who hunt, but that's just my personal take on it all.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, clearly both hunters and wildlife photographers need to understand what's going on, they need to understand the animal, what the senses, their movement, wind, terrain, concealment, all these kinds of things.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um so, for example, with wind direction, and this is really important.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, you need to be downwind of the animal.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: What you don't want to do is to get the animal to pick up your scent and for it to know that you're there.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's two reasons for that.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: One is they might just take off and go.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, they might decide you're a threat, they might not be familiar with your scent because you know, animals are very sensitive to smell, and if it's an unfamiliar smell, then that can potentially lead to an unpredictable situation, and they might just might just decide to charge at you rather than run away.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, neither of those outcomes are particularly uh useful from a photography standpoint.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to be very aware of wind direction.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you need to move slowly and deliberately, so you don't want to make any sudden movements that attract attention, everything needs to be slow and steady.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be snapping twigs, you don't want to be making movement.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you want to use natural cover as much as you can, you want to be unobtrusive again from a photography standpoint.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's so that you can capture the animal in its natural environment doing what it does, doing its natural thing.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you always need to be watching the animal, you need to be uh very, very aware of any changes.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, so I've tracked both elephant and rhino on foot, and in both cases, I did not want those animals getting spooked by me and deciding to um you know um try and get rid of me one way or another.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um so these these things are all important, and the most important thing really is to be patient to to um you know just appreciate that it takes time to get in relatively close to animals if you're in this sort of situation.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I do recommend if you're gonna do that, you go with somebody who knows what they're doing, and also something can happen.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: An animal might get spooked, you might do something the somebody with might do something, something else might happen and they just may go.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So again, it's really important to keep your expectations real.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now um so I want to give you a practical practical suggestion I'm gonna call it so there's five steps to to perhaps work through.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm assuming that there are certain species and I'm gonna recommend that you take them one at a time so choose one species uh that you're interested in and just do a bit of research on it learn a bit more about its preferred habitat its preferred food sources typical daily activity when is it likely to be active when is it inactive if you are doing this yourself um it might be I don't know you know you could be in the US or Europe or somewhere where there are animals that you're interested in then just find a promising location you're looking at habitat what are the opportunities it has to feed in that location you're looking out at tracks you're listening for calls and you're also looking out at likely travel routes and then once you've picked your spot and you feel reasonably comfortable and maybe other people have seen animals there this is another thing about if you're in a community and this is one of the great things about using guides actually in in certain reserves because they talk and they know where different animals are likely to be.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that can help you to set up in the right spot but then just spend time watching you don't need to have the camera attached to your face the whole time you know have a look at what's around um be aware of the whole environment beware of other animals that might be coming behind you I've I've been sat in a vehicle and had giraffes walk past I'd no idea were there because I got fixated on what I was photographing.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So be aware of the environment be ready all the time you want definitely uh if you can have your camera set silent this is one advantage of mirrorless that they can be completely silent and uh maybe take some test shots to make sure you're the kind of exposures you're getting and what you want um but then watch and start observing what the animal is doing and start predicting what it's likely to do next and be aware to support that with evidence.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know what have you just observed?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Has it just changed has it stopped feeding for example has it started looking somewhere else um you know what's going on what are these are the clues to really start getting good at observing because they tell you when something is likely to happen and then finally review your results at the end did your prediction prove correct what did you miss most importantly what did you learn because uh for me one of the big things about photography is I'm constantly learning and I have been all my life so um you know if you're not learning something new then you're probably doing it wrong okay so um I want to bring this back again thank you to Jim for um writing I don't know if that's helpful uh to you uh because I can't give you a bunch of specifics about certain animal you know about specific animals at this point but I do want to give you some pointers about the kind of things to be looking for when you're thinking about going out to photograph an animal uh particularly if it's somewhere where you live and you know you've got animals nearby you and you want to spend more time photographing them and why wouldn't you?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: But um you know obviously do take precautions um they are wild animals uh after all uh even fairly mundane or fairly quiet looking animals can be dangerous if they are treated the wrong way let's say say that so um for example definitely any mother with a calf is you need to treat with respect because mothers will tend to protect their calves you need to be aware of general situations uh when you're working with wildlife that could be dangerous so make sure you keep yourself safe to stay back from um animals if if you there is a sp so for example with elephants I've just come back from Namibia and I've got a guidelines of different behavior there are five stages of behaviors which go from no threat to this this animal is making a serious charge and you are in real danger.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can get that kind of information for the animals you're interested in that is very very useful and I think very important.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get too close to them you know let your lens cover across the distance close up don't do that physically unless you are absolutely sure of what you're doing.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah you know the the the key I think to good wildlife photography is it is doing the research is understanding the animal but the reason that you would do that and I think this reflects in the photographs is that you're genuinely interested in the animal you are generally interested in conveying something of that animal whether it's some feeling of personality or some behavior something that maybe most people aren't aware that they do.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this so that when you start becoming passionate about a particular animal and wanting to share uh your experience of that animal that in turn makes research in the animal just a very natural step anyway you've probably already done it.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that that I think is really important and that really summarizes um what I'd like to cover in this one.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again Jim for the suggestion I really do appreciate it.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: If um if you have any questions any thoughts anything you'd like to share please do please comment wherever you're getting the podcast um well this it goes out on various platforms so wherever it is please comment or you can write to me directly you can hit me up on the website as well www.ge.photography and um I look forward to hearing from you so um thanks for your time hope you found that useful I will speak to you on Friday.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now