African Wild Dog, Lycaon pictus, Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Shot in a Nature Reserve in Kromdraai, near the Cradle of Humankind, not a Zoo but still captive animals who don't fend for themselves. Why do I go there? It's close to where I live (1 hours drive) rather than 5 to the Kruger and it's still open veld.
I've only seen them once in the Kruger, in 30 years. They have currently around 150 total, and the Kruger is 2,000,000 km² (1,242,742 mi²) in size! So that's one dog per 13,333 km²...
I doubt that this will go beyond a 6. It is not in your face enough, crisp enough, over saturated enough, weird enough, DPC 'candy' enough. The animal is not staring at me directly. His eyes aren't boring holes into me. It's not "National Geographic" enough.
I hope that the wildlife togs on DPC, especially those from Africa will appreciate it. African Wild Dogs have many similar traits such as seen in their domesticated brothers and when you get to see them, (they are extremely rare), I can stay and watch them interact as long as they let me.
(This reserve had 2 of it's Rhino's poached a few months ago. We are having an enormous problem with poaching as South Africa is one country that has looked after it's wildlife, this year almost 160 Rhino's poached for their horns for the Chinese and Vietnamese markets. The powdered horn is supposed to cure cancer and increase male virility, a complete fallacy. Last year we lost 333 animals to poachers :(
This image has been doctored from the original...but hopefully not so much that it is evident or unnatural.
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Select Dog Mask, Smart Sharpen 100% Default Radius
Select Dog Mask, Saturate +10% (Due to Overcast Day)
Select Dog Mask, Curves Medium Contrast RGB
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