For one very lucky wildebeest, the will to live overpowered the jaws of
death and it's 'die another day'. Thousands of wildebeest had been
crossing the Mara River between Tanzania and Kenya for their seasonal
migration when a crocodile thought it had hit the jackpot and grabbed
one by the tail. The animal just didn't fancy becoming some other guys
lunch and put up an almighty struggle, it kept fighting against what
looked like impossible odds and as if the gods honoured its persistence,
it got away after the crocodile became distracted by a herd of Zebras.
Amateur photographer and full time mother Corlette Wessels from
Johannesburg, who was on holiday in Kenya, was on hand to snap the
battle.
She said:
'Every year animals cross over the Mara River into Tanzania or back into the Mara.
'They move from season to season to go to the area where it rained for
better grazing. Normally between July and October they cross over to
Tanzania side - there are no fences so the animals can roam free. 'There
were thousands of animals crossing on that day. The wildebeest wanted
to cross but this one in the photos was quite far behind the others.
'When there are hundreds of animals crossing at once, the crocodiles
either stay away or go for the ones which are the slow swimmers.
'This particular wildebeest has drifted away from the rest as the river
current was quite strong. 'I could see the crocodile approaching and
once it got closer to the wildebeest it went under the water to get to
'striking' distance.
'This croc only got the wildebeest by the tail. I was amazed that he had
such a strong hold on the wildebeest by just clinging onto his tail.
'The wildebeest was fighting and almost got to the bank of the river but
then the crocodile kept pulling it back deeper into the river.
'The strength of this crocodile was unreal; I could not believe how he
pulled this wildebeest like a toy into the river. 'At one point I
thought the wildebeest was going to lose his tail - that is how hard the
crocodile pulled on him.' 'Some zebras decided to cross and swam right
towards the crocodile and wildebeest - the Zebra almost looked like they
trampled the crocodiles as they swam.
'This caused the crocodiles to let go of their grip on the wildebeest
and he bolted for the riverbank. 'The wildebeest was absolutely
exhausted. I do not think the zebras disrupted the crocodiles on
purpose; it must have been wildebeest's lucky day.
'I wanted to get good photos but on the other hand I did not want to see
the wildebeest drown. 'When I look at my photos, I think the happy
ending is one of my favourite things about them. 'I live in Africa and
know this is the circle of life and there are no grocery stores for the
animals to buy food and it is truly the survival of the fittest.'
No comments:
Post a Comment