It is one of the most photographed nature reserves in Africa: the Kenyan Masai Mara National Park. More than 300,000 tourists come every year to photograph giraffes, elephants, hyenas and warthogs. Yet there are still well-hidden places in the area of more than 1,500 square kilometers, British nature photographer Will Burrard-Lucas heard from a conservationist friend: dense forests through which no jeep can pass. But endangered black rhinos do come, and rangers from the local Rhino Unit would like to monitor them to see how the population is doing. To properly track the animals, some individuals are equipped with GPS chips. But other rhinos, only equipped with an ear tag, are more difficult to track.
An elephant, a buffalo and a serval.
Photos Will Burrard-Lucas
Imagery, especially of the area that is difficult for people to access, would therefore provide a more complete picture. And Burrard-Lucas’ expertise came in handy here. Over the years he has developed several camera traps: cameras that automatically take a photo when movement is registered. This technique is not new: both nature photographers and biologists like to work with it, and also in, for example, the acclaimed snow leopard documentary The Velvet Queen by the French nature filmmaker Vincent Munier, the camera trap plays an important role.
What makes Burrard-Lucas’ work extra special is that he also develops camera traps himself. So he made the BeetleCama camera with the chassis of a miniature four-wheel drive. The funny-looking cart can be controlled remotely and he can get very close to animals without any problems. He already photographed penguins in this way on the Falkland Islands and in Botswana he watched meerkats.
Giraffes, zebras and a hippo.
Photos Will Burrard-Lucas
In the Masai Mara, he and the rangers chose one permanent location for the camera trap: a small river in the middle of the forest, where the rhinos would hopefully pass. Burrard-Lucas set the automatic camera so that it would also work at night (but not with too much flash); the rangers checked every few weeks to see if the battery needed to be replaced and if the memory card was not full.
Ultimately, this not only gave the rangers a more complete picture of the rhino population, it also provided Burrard-Lucas with a series of special photos. Because not only the black rhinos passed by paddling in front of the lens; Lions, giraffes, elephants and hippos, among others, also passed by. The series even recently earned him the Sony World Photography Award in the category wildlife.
The photographer’s favorite photo is the one in which the river suddenly overflows its banks and a rhino struggles to reach the other side. The photo underlines a broader problem in Masai Mara: deforestation reduces the absorption of rainwater into the soil and causes more frequent flooding.
A rhino and a leopard.
Photos Will Burrard-Lucas
