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Elephant-back Safaris in the Okavango Delta

In 1994 I flew to Maun in Botswana to set up a documentary for the BBC Natural History Unit on the Elephant-back Safaris, which Randall J Moore had recently started to run in the Okavango Delta.

Randall introduced me to his lead elephant, a mature male called Abu, who was highly trained and responsive. An Africa elephant, Abu had been born the Kruger National Park. After the adults in his herd were culled, he had captured as a calf and shipped to a safari park in America. Randall found him in a bad way, living in a barn in an area too cold for his well-being.

Abu was brought back to Africa with two other trained elephants called Cathy and Benny. After looking for a  home first in Kenya and then Knysna in the Cape, Randall brought them to Botswana in 1990. They were joined by Bibi, a trained African elephant from a zoo in Ceylon, and a number of juveniles who helped to make up a small, captive herd.

The documentary, Dawn to Dusk on Safari, presented by the naturalist and wildlife artist Jonathan Scott, was first shown on BBC 1. We'd often see it repeated on television in South Africa.

Abu has sadly died but Cathy and the herd still thrive. You can read more about them on the website for Abu's Camp.

The Otter Sketchbook

Bee the otter testing the water ~ a sketch investigated by Jims

Drawing otters is tricky, firstly because they don't stay still for a moment and secondly because our tame otters are so affectionate and inquisitive that they continually want to see what you are doing. The paw prints on the sketch above are not made with paint but with mud from a wet creature who would have made the paper all soggy, given half a chance.

Our otter Jims was these easiest to draw since he was less energetic than the others. After numerous attempts with a pencil I found it best to sketch in a broad pen when I was with the otters. I'd then go inside and draw with thick ink using a glass tube onto cartridge paper to capture a likeness of character.

This sketch shows thier small partially webbed hands and their tiny ears and thick, rudder-like tail. I forgot the whiskers, which are very important to otters. Like other mammals they need them to estimate their body width so that they do not get stuck going down holes in the river bank.

Mum kept telling me to make the eyes larger and more appealing but it didn't work. They have small eyes. I always know when someone has drawn or sculpted an otter they have not observed well as they get the confirmation wrong. They are often given the legs of a dog - but the are mustelids and have an altogether more primitive structure.

One trick of composition is to make sure that one eye is in the centre of the page. This applies to any portrait. But rules are to be broken. I just keep drawing, keep sketching and painting,

keep observing the animals

despite being interrupted or sidetracked until I have one picture that works - then I print it and sign it, mount it and hang it on the wall.

You can read more about living with otters on ~ http://funnily-enough.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/living-with-otters.html

 All sketches on the blog are featured in 'Ride the Wings of Morning' and are (c) Sophie Neville. Please contact me if you need to use them on sophie@sophieneville.co.uk