Fearless Dash

Fearless Dash is one of my proudest conservation images. Honey Badgers are well known for being fearless, confident, tough, intelligent, the list goes on. Unfortunately, because of this, they are often killed by farmers as they are seen as pests. They kill young livestock and cause havoc around the property. I decided to try and help in my immediate surroundings, and with the assistance of Erindi Private Game Reserve, have started lending cage traps to neighbouring properties in an attempt to reduce the killing of these magnificent animals. One morning I got a heads up that one has been caught and is on its way to Erindi. I arranged with them where I would meet them, and then led them to the drop-off destination. A beautiful watering hole in the middle of the reserve, where food and water was abundant, a perfect new home for this little fella. I had pre-visualised the image, and planned for the background. We placed the cage trap on the ground, I got into position only about 10 meters away, and when I gave them the thumbs up, they opened the cage trap. The Honey Badger dashed out, and the very first image I took was this one, fortunately, as it immediately turned away and made its way to the trees.