Tortoise Pictures

Taking tortoise pictures on safari might seem like shooting fish in a barrel, but it's not always that easy because you have to find them first.

And the vegetation in most African reserves is dense enough to provide them with a lot of cover, especially in summer after the rains have started.

So your best chance is to catch them in the act of crossing the road, which they seem to do often enough, and at a fast clip for a tortoise but slow enough for you to get a couple of snaps.

The biggest challenge is to get photographs of them doing something really interesting, not just walking or munching on vegetation.

Best Places To Photographs Of Them

The pics on this page of a leopard tortoise were taken by me at the Karoo National Park, which is one of the best areas in Africa to photograph them because it has one of the highest concentrations of this reptile anywhere. He very kindly posed for me on a patch of grass and didn't even move off when I came very close.

It's possible to go for walks in this reserve and your chances are very good of coming across more of the 5 diiferent species that occur here. It also helps that the vegetation is very sparse and open.

The Kgalagadi National Park is also very open which alows you to see them trundling along from far off. Not so in the Kruger Park where you will likely only see them when they cross the road and there are more predators which thin out their numbers appreciably.

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