Welcome to the photographic images of Jim Heupel. These images embody my love of nature in all its forms, but especially in its wildlife. Sometimes the images tell the story in their own right; sometimes the story is hidden. Such is the case with the photograph on this page.
The Plains Zebras are beautiful in themselves, but the image gives no hint of the life and death struggle they faced. The zebras were on their annual migration, crossing the Tanzanian border into the Masai Mara area of Kenya in the southwest, stopping at the Mara River to quench their considerable thirst from the only water within miles. There were about 50 zebras in the group, all trying to get to the water. However, as soon as the few zebras at the front would start to drink, they would sense a vibration in the water—crocodile!—and start a stampede up the hill away from the river’s edge. This continued for an hour and a half later before I was finally able to catch five zebras drinking by each other at the same time. I never saw a crocodile near the zebras in that hour and a half, but there were at least two very large crocodiles on the bank across the river, some 50 yards or so away. The vibrations were likely from several hippopotamus some distance away—but the zebras could not tell, and so it was an excruciatingly long time before some of the zebras were able to get a small drink of water.