It's cool tracking animal lineage even in places I visit infrequently. In South Africa, I reunited with two female leopards (Pics 1 & 2) that I first photographed as twin cubs 11 years ago (Pics 3 & 4). At 11, they're still strong, successful moms, and sport their own mother's long, squarish face.

When I think of Africa, corvids simply don't come to mind. There's no reason a crow *shouldn't* be successful in this environment, but we're usually distracted by other more colorful, exotic species to consider them. Thus, I was excited to get my first decent photo of the Pied Crow on this trip.

I should be saving this until the holidays, I suppose, but what the heck. In South Africa we saw a real "white elephant." Our guide spotted this calf, which looked slightly different from the rest of the herd. With lighter skin, pink highlights, and blonde hair, it was a leucistic elephant!

Continuing with new photos from South Africa... I think this is the last thing we photographed. Returning to camp on our way to pack up, we encountered a herd of impala. They proceeded to sproing across the track in front of us, offering me an opportunity to play with slow shutter speeds.

I try not to market my trips here as much as I do on other platforms... but it's probably important to mention that I only have TWO open spots left on my entire 2026 tour calendar. The Zambia: Rivers of Life tour takes place September 6 - 18: www.maxwaugh.com/workshops/za...

The day after Halloween, are you grabbing the Twix, Rolo, Kit Kat, or Tootsie Roll?

Halloween calls for a view of my favorite Halloween-themed species I've photographed over the years: the northern ghost bat from Costa Rica!

The dwarf mongoose is pretty much my favorite herpestid, and not just because it's an accomplished spelunker. They manage to get themselves into all sorts of nooks and crannies.

Here comes trouble! During our visit to a spotted hyena den in South Africa, several of the older cubs kept trying to sneak in and chew the tires on our safari vehicle.

Psst. Another BSKy audience preview drops before even my email newsletter this morning: My latest South Africa photos are done! Head here for a quick look. I'll be sharing more in the coming week(s): www.maxwaugh.com/2025/10/27/n... (Happy to land the White-crested Helmetshrike after many tries.)

Moose Monday, anyone? Here's a nice bull photographed in Yellowstone over a decade ago. By Yellowstone standards, he was fairly big, but this ecosystem actually has the world's smallest subspecies of moose. They're noticeably smaller than those gargantuan Alaska moose, for example.

Maybe the biggest mistake I made this year behind the lens: forgetting my polarizer and turning this spectacled caiman photo into a unique selfie.

An American bison trudges up the lower slopes of Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone. (2017)

This 11pm - 2am sleep schedule I've been keeping since I got home is NOT cutting it. But I guess I can only splash some water on my face and get to work processing the rest of these South Africa photos...

It's International Snow Leopard Day. I suppose for me it's an "iconic" species, since I've used my photo of a Gene-Simmons-style snow leopard (which I took in my formative years at our local zoo) as my avatar for a couple decades now. I assure you, the rest of these photos were taken in the wild!

First morning back from Malaysia and I'm awake at 2:30am. There's a shocker. I see plenty of naps ahead.

These last few days, we saw a lot of Borneo anglehead lizards in the Danum Valley. In this case I didn’t mind having a little bokeh to play with in the morning light. Heading home tomorrow!

I’ve mostly been worried about fending off leeches these last several days, but honestly, I’d be much more concerned about a bite from this massive centipede (found during tonight’s night walk). We’re wrapping up the Borneo trip with one final try for orangutans in the morning!

Hard to complain about *another* leopard cat sighting, especially when tonight’s was our best photo op with this species of the trip. But after seeing about a dozen of these tiny felines, there’s no question we were jonesing for one of Borneo’s other, more elusive felines to appear!

I took my group on their first proper night walk for macro tonight, and it seemed like everyone had fun. We encountered many different characters, sometimes hanging out together!

So at this point we’ve seen a fish owl with a fish, and a serpent eagle with a serpent. Why is it so hard to see a clouded leopard with some clouds???

Glossy Swiftlets soars high above the Bornean rainforest outside of the Gonmatong Caves. We survived the 700-stair climb to get to this view, and then proceeded to watch 2+ million bats emerge from the cave. What an amazing spectacle!

Yeah yeah, there’s some orangutan butthole featured here… but this was our first view of the species on this trip, made even more special by the little hitchhiker who tagged along with Mom yesterday.

Tune in later today (Oct. 14 at 20:30BST) to watch the unveiling of the 61st annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards! brnw.ch/21wWAxr (My first WPY winner was titled “Snow Exposure,” and won the Black and White category in WPY55.)

Most of you that have been following my work for a while know that I’m a sucker for new owls. A couple nights ago, I finally scored a photo op with the Brown Wood Owl, which teased me two years ago during my last Borneo visit. It’s much prettier up close than I imagined!

The quick brown gibbon jumped over the green rainforest…

What a great start to the Borneo adventure! We’ve had a variety of sightings, including some surprisingly good snake action (I saw few the last time I was here). The squirrels were NOT happy about this large reticulated python that was exploring the rainforest some 20 meters above the ground.

My Mariners were having trouble putting those Tigers to bed, it seems. At least, that’s what I can gather from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. I’m on my way to Borneo, where we won’t see tigers BUT hopefully will have some luck with other wild felines! Stay tuned for updates…

I thoroughly enjoyed the Mariner-Moose-themed excitement by moonlight last night here in Seattle!

I went into the Way-back Machine for this one, a scene from the spring of 2008 in Yellowstone.

In less than a week we'll be exploring the jungles of Borneo, looking for all sorts of fantastic nocturnal critters. Here's an Asian Palm Civet from my last visit there.

Due to the aforementioned school project, I've been inundated with dragon content in recent weeks. Yup, it's the school mascot. So I was transported back to my first Ecuador trip (2006), where we traveled deep into the Amazon, The highlight was... this Amazon Forest Dragon (yes, it was slow).

I had really hoped to finish and start sharing my latest Africa pics before I leave for my next trip, but that goal seems to be tantalizingly out of reach. Who knew that co-planning an elementary school fall festival could interfere so much with the exciting task of photo processing...?

We're nearing the end of my year behind the lens (one more big trip), which means I'll soon start narrowing down my favorite shots of 2025. This was one of my '24 faves (taken in BC), in part because I was dealing with failing gear at the time. It felt like a miracle even getting this to turn out.

One of my more memorable sunset scenes photographed over the years. We'd spent the afternoon cruising the Rio Tarcoles for #birds and other wildlife, and ended up at the Pacific Ocean just as these Great Egrets were wading into the surf in the best light. Not a bad way to end a day!

Today I'm hoping to start processing my new South Africa photos. First up (alphabetically) was Agama, Black-necked. This photo probably won't make the final cut for the archive, but how often do y'all see blue-headed lizards?

Wolf and raven, photographed in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley several years ago. I miss being back in the park—life is too busy at the moment for casual visits!—but am looking forward to returning to lead some winter '27 trips. There's ONE spot left on those if anyone's interested in joining me.

Snowy on a toothpick. (From the last big Washington irruption in 2011.)

I'll probably take a break from these Brazil pix for a bit. As usual, you can check them all out in my archive (maxwaugh.com). Here's one last shot from my favorite encounter of the trip, when hundreds of Blue-headed, Yellow-crowned, and Orange-cheeked Parrots came to feed at the River of Doubt.

No, I'm not above photographing pigeons! Like our own Rock Doves, Brazil's Picazuro Pigeon has some subtle-but-cool plumage that makes it quite pretty. Definitely an underrated subject! #birds

I loved having the chance to search for wild jaguars on land, rather than the usual boat exploration, at this ranch in the southern Pantanal. On this property jaguars do take down cows from time to time (some are also part of a research project, thus the radio collar). Full power on display here!

So, was it a matter of Not Enough Lens, or am I just obsessed with twigs and branches? #birds

I'm back to sharing new Brazil photos this week... A rainforest canopy tower experience is a very cool way to see birds at eye level, but getting close mammals is uncommon. At this tower, I've had multiple monkey encounters, including endangered white-cheeked spiders this year. Very special!

This pair of Black-billed Magpies was harassing the Bald Eagle non-stop after it caught a fish. They would cheekily nip its tail feathers in hopes of distracting it to the point of giving up its meal. (Yellowstone 2016)

I'm taking a short break from new Brazil photos, at the very least to remind everyone that I do like variety. Here's something distinctly non-tropical: a Royle's pika photographed in the Himalayas during my 2015 India trip.

We didn't get out for many night walks in Brazil, but on one evening we did bring the macro gear along. Good thing, since we found this pair of caterpillars (Automeris?) huddled together in a defensive formation. See the full Brazil wildlife gallery here: bit.ly/Brazil2025Wi...

Definitely one of the more dynamic looking birds from my Brazil trip, the Orange-cheeked Parrot. If you haven't done so, you can check out the full #Birds collection from this trip in the archive: bit.ly/Brazil2025Bi...

I'm up well before the alarm this morning, so this will be me by mid-morning, I'd wager. (Almost as cute, too!)

I'm very fond of this scene and this moment. We only stopped to grab a group photo at the end of our time in the Amazon. Instead, we found a surprise caiman nursery (this is an adult) and a host of butterflies. There's so much hidden wildlife lurking on the edge of the Amazon's rivers...

Brazil 2025: When we arrived at our lodge deep in the Amazon, I was looking forward to seeing some new primate species, but it took a while before they finally revealed themselves. At last, I landed glimpses of spider and woolly monkeys, marmosets, and here, the dusky titi monkey.