THESE nocturnal images shed new light on the behaviour of the animals that are the heart and soul of the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.
The area, which covers 1500 square kilometres in the south-west of the country, is renowned for its rich concentration of big game and for the extraordinary 3000-kilometre annual migration of nearly 2 million wildebeest, zebra and antelope from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.
Both images were taken with high-resolution thermal cameras using expensive germanium lenses that are transparent to infrared, explains Martin Dohrn of Ammonite, the production company that developed the high-definition equipment for its wildlife documentaries due to be on National Geographic channels.
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The brightest parts of the image correspond to the highest temperatures. 鈥淔or working in the Masai Mara, we would normally set the temperature range sensitivity from about 0掳C to about 45掳C,鈥� Dohrn explains.
鈥淲e can colour the images any way, so in this case, we chose golden yellow to represent warm-blooded mammals and used blue or black to represent darkness.
鈥淲e noticed that many of the grazing animals, giraffes included, often spent long hours of the night ruminating 鈥� especially if the night was dark and moonless. We also noticed that lions were far more likely to hunt under the same conditions, whereas hyenas seemed to prefer moonlit nights for large social hunts.鈥�
These insights into behaviour could help conservation efforts. African national parks like Masai Mara and the Serengeti have seen populations of big game , over a 35-year-period.
The pictures also throw up questions. In the bottom image, the animals are spread out, which is typical of a moonlit night when there are no predators around. 鈥淭he eland [the horned antelope on the right] appear much warmer than the wildebeest,鈥� says Dohrn. 鈥淚s it because they鈥檙e larger, or have thinner fur, or have a warmer metabolism?鈥�