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Recently, wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick had the privilege to spend 10 days in the Addo Elephant National Park. During this time it rained virtually continuously and this brought an unexpected hive of activity of seldom seen species and animal behavior that provided excellent photographic opportunities. Flying ant emergences provided the most spectacular viewing with many species making the most of this seldom occurring event to feed on the nutritious ants.

As a dedicated conservationist and wildlife photographer, Peter Chadwick has worked throughout southern Africa in some of its most special wild places. These include the Kalagadi Desert, Kruger National Park, Drakensberg Mountains, the sub-antarctic Marion Island and De Hoop Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area.

The Photodestination team of Peter Chadwick and Arne Purves are proud supporters of the ARKive project and have been making submissions since 2005. We encourage others to contribute to this worthwhile effort. Through the showcasing of powerful images of our natural assets we can further encourage support for conservation and for protecting our fragile Earth!

As the seasons start changing from summer to winter in the Cape, the weather becomes less predictable and the autumn colors provide a vibrant visual display that beckons to be photographed.

The 27 600 hectare West Coast National Park is one of South Africa’s Important Bird Areas and the Langebaan Lagoon, which forms the centre of this ecologically diverse area, proudly and rightfully holds Ramsar status, which is only allocated to sites of international importance. The park is a hotspot for endemism and is probably best known for its vast fields of spring flowers and for the huge numbers of Palearctic waders that it attracts during the northern hemispheres winter.

On the second leg of his journey across Kenya, wildlife & conservation photographer Peter Chadwick, journeys across the Nyeri Desert to the famous Tsavo National Park. This incredible reserve hosted an amazing array of birdlife and unusal game species.

Leaving Amboseli, the dryness of the Nyeri Desert soon heralded the rather strange looking Gerenuk, stately Grants Gazelle and Beisa Oryx. Eastern Chanting Goshawks sat on top of the stunted vegetation and Rosy-Patched Bush-Shrike flew with labored flights between cover. 

Flocks of Fischer’s Sparrow-Lark’s were seen alongside an occasional Swahili Sparrow trying to feed amongst the scant grasses. Surprisingly a Cheetah showed itself on the edge of a small village where it was trying to drink from a dam, together with a lone Secretary Bird. A family of five Ground Hornbills walked totally unfazed amongst the scattered huts and people moving around in one of the many small villages near Oloitokitok.

On the last leg of his Kenyan journey, wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick left the rugged landscape of Tsavo West, which must be one of Africa’s true wilderness areas, to travel the road to Mombassa which was rather uninteresting apart from taxi’s keen to overtake on blind rises, while trucks hurtled towards them from the opposite direction. 

The coastal drive from Mombassa produced Sooty Falcon and Grasshopper Buzzard sitting on the telegraph lines and small flocks of Fischer’s Lovebirds flew amongst the Baobab trees. House Crows were everywhere and constantly chased away any of the indigenous birds. Stopping in at Mida Creek, which is well known as a water bird and wader destination, we were greeted by the sight of an Osprey swooping down and catching a fish. 

The Cape Gannet Morus capensis is a conspicuous resident of the southern African coast, and it is hard to believe that it is regarded as a ‘Vulnerable’ species. They often gather to feed around trawlers, and follow the annual sardine run up the east coast to KwaZulu- Natal in winter. At such times large numbers of birds can be observed flying beyond the breakers, plunging into the sea with closed wings and leaving a plume of spray as they disappear beneath the surface. The total population is estimated at 20 000 pairs that breed in dense colonies at six islands off the cape and Namibian coasts. In winter some birds migrate up the west coast to the gulf of Guinea

The Cape Floristic Kingdom (CFK) is situated in the southern tip of South Africa and stretches from Niewoudville in the north across to Port Elizabeth in the east. Oceans bound it to the south and west and the arid Karoo to the north and east. It covers only 90 000 square kilometres, but contains the highest diversity of plant life in the world. It is a “hotspot” of biodiversity with over 8500 species of plants, which occupy only 0.5% of the African continent, but encompasses 20% of the total plant species. Five of South Africa’s six biomes are found within its borders.

Cousin Island is a special nature reserve, in the Seychelles, managed by Nature Seychelles. Wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick had the privilege of spending some time working on Cousin Island recently. 

In today’s society there is much debate about the importance of protecting the environment and deciding how best to restore critical areas to their natural state.

Cousin Island stands out as a global conservation leader, demonstrating that it is possible and that the benefits are well worth it.

In the dim pre-dawn light the dull white shadows taking off from the island in the middle of the vlei were barely discernible. It was the sound of the squawking and whooshing of heavy wing beats that had first drawn my attention to the spectacle unfolding before my eyes.

Since being the general manager at De Hoop Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area, wildlife and conservation photographer, Peter Chadwick has kept a close eye on the fish tagging project that has been ongoing in the De Hoop Marine Protected Area for over 25 years. The project is the largest of its kind in the world, having tagged and released well over 50 000 fish.

The information that has been gathered from this project has helped researchers determine the movement patterns of many inshore fish species and has helped with the setting of line-fish management strategies for South Africa.

As the first faint rays of light, over a distant horizon heralded the dawn of a new day, the rush hour began with a cacophony of sound and frenetic activity. The night shift of  penetrating calls of Fierynecked Nightjars and their “Good Lord Deliver us” praises and the screeches of the resident Barn Owls gave way to Bokmakerrie and Cape Robin-Chat as they heralded their territories from the tops of bushes and trees.

Estuaries are among some of our most important coastal ecological features and rank along with tropical rainforests and coral reefs as the world's most productive ecosystems – they are even more productive than both the rivers and the ocean that influence them from either side. Estuaries are a transition zone where fish, birds and animals of all sorts congregate to feed, find refuge, grow to adulthood, and stage migrations. They are unique places, strongly affected by tidal action, where land and river and sea merge into a dynamic natural complex.

Birding is one of the fastest growing sectors of the international tourism market and here in South Africa we are particularly well blessed with both a diversity of special places and a variety of bird species, many of which are endemic.

As someone who has a passion for marine conservation, Peter Chadwick is always on the look out for innovative ideas to reduce our negative impacts on the oceans. One of his biggest bugbears is the amount of fishing line that gets irresponsibly discarded along our coastlines.

This line is non-bidigradable and can last for hundreds of years, entangling and snaring reef systems, marine mammals and birds and causing any entangled wildlife to suffer an unnecessary slow and often painful death. 

If the Great White Pelican feeding frenzy at Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya was not enough for me to witness the pelicans performed yet again! This time I was blown away by thousands of these large birds flying in every morning and evening to bathe.

Veteran of a previous ‘rhino war’, Dr Ian Player has a special connection with these charismatic animals and is following efforts to combat poaching with great interest.

This world respected conservationist has valuable insights into how we can tackle the current crisis, and shares them with Africa Geographic’s Rachel Lang.