Meet the Sitatunga...
This is a marsh dwelling antelope native to Central Africa and is also known as a Marshbuck.
It has an unusual way of walking and at first as I observed the small herd in the paddock at Chester Zoo I was concerned at how swampy the ground seemed to be but as I watched a little longer I could see how these animals are perfectly adapted to these conditions. One of their adaptations is long splayed hooves.
The males have beautiful long, curved horns but the females do not.
They are not a threatened species but their main predators are humans, pythons, crocodiles, leopards and lions.
Today I have taken a break from the shoot in the Lake District from last Saturday (I will return to those another day), and I am showing some pictures from my visit to Chester Zoo with my daughter, taking advantage of the reasonably good weather.
The first two shots are of Mandrill. The pictures are not as good quality as I would have liked because they were behind glass and it was difficult to get a clear shot without light reflecting off the glass. All the same I really like these images because of the expressions on the face of the large male. In the first shot he looks terribly sad, and in the second when one of the females started grooming him he still has a far away look.
The third picture is of two female Sitatunga which are swamp dwelling antelope from Central Africa. I thought it was quite a touching image as they moved in to make this contact, in what was quite a deliberate gesture.
Over the next few days come back to see some of my favourite shots from today's trip to the zoo.
