There’s no continent that inspires dreams of unspoiled wild places like Africa. While the truth of the matter may be somewhat more complicated than that, for all its issues the continent still boasts the world’s last functional megafauna ecosystem as well as the millions of smaller life forms that are less popularly known but no less amazing. Africa encapsulates the idealized nature of public television documentaries and brilliant footage of wildlife playing over David Attenborough narration that lies in the deep recesses of our collective subconsciousness. In fact, there’s hardly a place on earth that feels at once so fantastic and familiar, and those of us who never have or perhaps never will travel there are all the better for knowing that such a place exists somewhere out there.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, photo from wikipedia
Of course, nature blogging is far more about the local than the distant, but the global reach of the NBN allows for even blogs from Africa to feel as close as your own backyard, assuming your backyard has baboons, mongooses and crocodiles. Which I assume most of us don’t. Read on, though, for those who do…
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_ One of the amazing things about Africa is the scale. Everything feels so big there! So perhaps it’s appropriate that one of the more fascinating blogs focuses on something so small. Mainly Mongoose is just that, Dwarf Mongooses to be specific but other amazing things too.
- Truly of the finest and most thoughtful bird bloggers in the world hails from Tanzania, where he’s known simply as Birdman. Long form writing in the blogosphere may be rare, but James is a master. Highly recommended.
- The Wilkinsons behind Wilkinson’s World hail from Namibia, a half desert, half savanna nation with phenomenal birds, mammals and reptiles if the photos are any indication.
- The Wild Source is a site that seeks to be the visitor’s choice for those planning science intensive safaris. Sounds good to me, even if I’m limited to their African Safari Blog.
- Sharon Kersten is seeking 700 species of birds in South Africa and hopes she’ll get it in 2010. Fortunately for us she’s sharing her journey on Kersten Birding 2010.
- In a place that seems so darn photogenic there are, of course, some seriously fine photography coming out of Africa. Photo Africa and P.A. Photography are two with some really amazing eye-candy.
- Less formal, but no less fascinating, is the Remote Camera Trap blog, which is just like it sounds. The idea is to set a remote camera trap out in the bush and see what it captures. As you might imagine, it gets some really cool stuff.
- Planning a trip to Kenya? I wish! But you can follow John on his Kenya 2010 blog to find out the ins and outs of putting together such an intensive trip. A good resource! I hope someday I’ll need to use it!
- Bird conservation is atopic near and dear to all of us here at the NBN Blog, and often the first step is little more that getting someone interested in the birds around them. Hard as it may seem that a country like South Africa, with so many fabulous birds, still has people who aren’t birders, but Get Birding aims to get them hip to the scene.
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It’s wonderful to see so many high quality blogs coming out of Africa, and one hopes that the ease at which the internet allows people a window into that fascinating world leads to great things!
If any one has any ideas for another theme, or if you’d like your blog and blogs like it to be featured in this spot, drop me a line at naswick (at) gmail (dot) com. I appreciate the suggestions!
Til next time!
