Botswana is famous for its fabulous wildlife — from elephants, leopards and lions to zebras, hippos and giraffes. But one species of animals that one may not consider off the top of their head is the meerkat, which is an adorable squirrel-sized animal of the mongoose family with amazingly impressive social skills and charismatic nature. Photographer Will Burrard-Lewis got up and close personal with some of the area’s meerkats while he was recently in Botswana and he definitely got more than he had bargained for when he initially planned his trip.
This is Will, photographer and friend of wild meerkats.
He travelled to Botswana to photograph these adorable creatures this year…
…where he befriended them and showed them a thing or two about photography.
“These meerkats are completely wild but they have learned humans are not a threat so they allow us get really close to them,” Will notes.
They also use him as a very useful lookout post, which is extremely handy for the very short meerkats.
When reached for comment, the meerkat said, “Will is pretty cool, he makes me feel glamorous and I appreciate he teaches me the trade.”
The trust Will has built with these beauties really shows in his work…
He’s known these 3-week-old baby meerkats since they first came out of the den…
…since he’s always been part of their lives above ground, they have gotten quite used to him…
…so used to him, that they’ve “taken a few liberties” like taking over his camera for a change.
The best part? They know they will always have each other’s backs.
Watch the video here:
Meerkats!
Behind the scenes of my recent meerkat photography project in Botswana. You can see the resulting photographs here: http://blog.burrard-lucas.com/2014/04/photographing-meerkats/ Subscribe to my channel for more: http://bit.ly/willbl-youtube
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