Zawadi and Safi

Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. We have spent more than forty years following big cats in the place we call our second home - the Maasai Mara National Reserve on the border between Kenya and Tanzania’s great Serengeti National Park. The way to truly understand another being is to spend long periods of time in their presence learning something about their character and personality, the things that distinguish one individual from another. Zawadi (Half-Tail’s daughter) stole our hearts. We followed her intermittently throughout her sixteen years of life and last saw her in early 2012 at the place we call Leopard Gorge, the focus of our book The Leopard’s Tale (Elm Tree Books, 1985, and now in paperback through Bradt, 2013). This image was taken on the dawning of the new millennium - 1 January, 2000 - along Fig Tree Ridge a few kilometers north of the Reserve boundary. Our greatest hope when becoming involved in the lives of other animals, is eventually to be completely ignored, to blend in to the surroundings, to become as unthreatening in their world as the wind and the trees. This kind of rapport is rare but not impossible. We achieved it with Zawadi, and her relaxed and trusting nature was transmitted through her behavior to her cubs. This image of Zawadi and her four-month-old daughter Safi is one of our favorite images; a beautiful memory that we will always treasure.

For more information about Jonathan & Angela Scott, check out their Artist Bio.