Close encounter with a white Rhino

friendlymoose (73)in Worldphotography • 3 years ago

When I saw the subject of the #worldphotography I immediately knew which wild animal I was going to submit for this contest.
It was on a roundtrip my wife and I made back in 2005 trough Southern Africa.
We went to Matopos National park in Zimbabwe for a guided tour. We drove around in a jeep and spotted quite a lot of beautiful wildlife.
And suddenly our guide spotted this beautiful white rhino. He suggested to step out of the jeep and get a little closer on foot.

We were quite excited and a bit scared, but the guide seemed to know what he did.
And he had Betsy, his gun with him. He never had to use it before, but if the rhino might come towards us he would fire a shot in the air to scare him away.

We approached him against the wind. Rhinos have a very bad eyesight, but they can easily smell you.
We came closer and closer. I had quite a good zoom lens, so fully zoomed in I couldn't get the complete massive animal on the photo.

I like the following shot the best. What an impressive animals!
It's so sad that they are hunted and killed for their horns.

And this shot shows how close we actually were. I'm still excited when I watch the photos again.

FriendlyMoose

Photographing is my passion. Although I like photography in general, nature photography is one of my favourite subjects. I often go out with my camera for a hike to capture the beauty of nature.
I'm sharing my photos on Hive, Noise.Cash & APPICS.
I would love to read what you think of my photos in the comments.

Discord: friendlymoose#5717

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