Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma

Michael Nichols

National Geographic Society

Before we went to Zakouma I told Nick there are six types of cats: lions, leopards, cheetah, caracals, wild cats, and the serval. The most elegant of them all is the serval so of course what we wanted most was a perfect shot of one. Downloading cards from the camera traps is always like Christmas, you never know what you are going to get. On one frame we spied only the tail of a serval. We were disappointed but continued looking at images. To our delight the serval reappeared. Probably after hearing the click of the camera it turned and took this perfect self-portrait. These beautiful creatures stalk water's edge hunting small mammals and birds.

Michael Nichols, "Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma," in POYi Archive, Item #40359, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/40359 (accessed March 15, 2025).