Behind the Shot
Animals native to the African bush are accustomed to seeing safari trucks. They’ve grown up with the passing vehicles carrying groups of awestruck voyeurs. The wildlife don’t see the trucks and onlookers as predators. It’s just a part of daily life in their world.
This shot demonstrates the ease the animals feel with visitors right from the beginning. While on safari in Kenya, photographer Pierson Oglesby captured this image of four lion cubs just hanging out and waiting for their mothers to return from a hunt. If you look closely, you can partially see the fourth cub in the middle. “It was really beautiful to see the animals free to roam with unlimited space,” he says.
Pierson was only about 30 or 40 feet away when one of the mothers came back to feed the cubs. Seeing them living freely with their mothers made him even more appreciative of wildlife conservation efforts in Africa. These cubs will continue growing up together in the bush. It’s their natural habitat. Their home. If we’re lucky, we get to be tourists.
