The more time you spend in the bush, the less you look for an animal and the more you notice what is slightly out of place: a curve that isn’t a branch, an ear breaking the grass, an impala staring intently. Some of us acquire this skill more readily than others. Artist Shelly Perkins belongs firmly in the sharp-eyed camp. Here, she explains why spotting wildlife is about more than good eyesight, and how to look into a landscape rather than simply at it.
“There’s a caracal over there,” I say to my husband, who is scanning a large camelthorn through his binoculars for LBJs. “Where?” he exclaims, spinning in his seat in disbelief. “Oh,” I say, doing a quick evaluation on the distance, “about a hundred metres away?”
We’re looking across a thick sea of veld — almost the exact same colour as a caracal and a good forty centimetres high. “One hundred metres away…” he mumbles in disbelief, furrowing his brow. I point to where I’m looking at the motionless form of the small sitting cat, while he peers over his binos, shifting his head from side to side to get a different perspective, in the same way that a jackal might listen for a mouse in the grass.
I admit, he’s at a disadvantage. Ten seconds earlier I had noticed the faintest dark outline of small shoulders rolling across the tops of the grasses. Although distant and lacking in contrast, it was enough for me to register that the lines of the scene had been disrupted and that something small and probably cat-like (based on the slinking movement) was there.
Like all non-native African travellers, I’ve had to learn the art of ‘active observation’. Over the years I have been tutored by some of the most talented guides in the business, who have taught me how to listen for alarm calls, to look for where alert antelope are staring, to search a dusty road for crisp spoor and to look into the bush not at it.
I also suspect I have been blessed with slightly sharper eyesight than the average Homo sapien — not Shangaan-guide sight, but still pretty good. Yet, over my years of watching wildlife I’ve learnt that ‘seeing’ is about more than just spotting an animal at an eye-watering distance.
Where my vision works best is when I am intentionally searching for interruptions in the lines and tone of a scene. On safari, this is often when an animal moves across the view, intersecting the line of a hanging vine or catching a small patch of fur on a beam of sunlight breaking through a mahogany glade.
When these interruptions happen, my eyes immediately jump to that break in the flow. And I use that exact visual trigger in my artwork, to create impact or dynamism in a scene, enabling viewers to move through the composition and pause in the key areas.
I guess over time we all develop our own style of how we observe the wild. The enigma of vision is that we can never know exactly how someone else views the world, so I wonder what other tricks you might have to help you see wildlife when you’re on safari?
Shelly Perkins is a wildlife and landscape artist based in rural Worcestershire. Her beautiful caracal painting below (© Shelly Perkins) is available as a print at https://www.shellyperkins.co.uk/product/superiority
Around the campfire
Are you a natural spotter? Are you the person who notices the twitch of an ear in a thicket — or the one still trying to establish which of the six apparently identical trees everyone else is looking at? Perhaps a guide has taught you a particularly useful trick, or experience has shown you that the best clues often come from listening rather than looking. Maybe you just wait for the animal to move… What has helped you become better at spotting wildlife? And is there one sighting you remain especially proud of finding?
Reply to this email and tell us. We’d love to gather your stories — along with any anecdotes about the animal that remained completely invisible until, quite suddenly, it wasn’t (and sometimes it’s the biggest ones who are the best at hiding in plain sight, like elephants or giraffes, don’t you think?). And with your permission we may share some of your comments in a future Shamwari, or in the magazine itself 😊
More ways to sharpen your eye…
However many safaris we’ve been on, there is always another sign to learn, and another place we might not have thought to look. In Where to look?, Mike Unwin shares some practical tips for improving your chances of finding wildlife when you’re out on a game drive. Keep them in mind the next time you have your binos at the ready (you’ll get extra points if you spot something before your guide does).
