NWE B&W

Her bushy tail flicked uncertainly, then the baby Nyala turned to face me.

Nwe means "one" in Tsonga.

She watched me with some caution. As I approached them, I could sense a growing wariness in their demeanor. The young Nyala snorted lightly, uncertain about my presence, but seemed comforted by the presence of her mother nearby. The adult female was attentive to her little one's call but remained relaxed as I slowly inched closer to get that shot.

Nyala were a fairly commonly sighted buck in the areas we traveled, yet they were not easy to approach most of the time. Somewhat skittish, they often appeared a little nonchalant at first when one saw them but moved quickly away as one came too close. So getting close was a challenge. Back at our camp, though, luck seemed to favour me. A female Nyala and her yearling were regular visitors, as our camp surroundings provided them with an abundance of broad-leaved plants and freshly sprouted grass, a chief source of their diet.

A few days went by, and they became more accustomed to my presence as I moved regularly past the pair to meet our guides or eat at the boma. These moments gave me an opportunity to observe them from a closer distance each time. On one of the last days at the location, I took the afternoon off from my usual camera preps and wended my way in a zig-zag fashion towards them. Never approaching directly in line of sight, I eventually managed to get within a few meters of both and capture this rather statuesque shot of the little Nyala one.