Mud-Capped

Maasai Mara, Kenya · nature

A topi watches the camera with cake of dried mud still capping the tips of both horns. Headgear from a mudbath taken hours earlier.

Topi — Damaliscus lunatus — are one of the easier antelope to identify on the Mara: chestnut-brown body, dark blue-black patches on the legs and face, and lyre-shaped horns that ring with age. They're also one of the funniest. Topi mud-wallow like buffalo, and after a particularly enthusiastic session they often emerge with caps of dried mud still clinging to the tips of the horns, which makes them look like they've been to a particularly bad costume party.

This one had clearly been at it. The horn tips were thickly crusted, the forehead had a smear of mud above one eye, and the expression was the steady, slightly bored stare that all topi seem to perfect. I shot tight — head and shoulders only — so the focus stays on the horns. Topi are not rare on safari, but a portrait this close requires holding still for a long time. The vehicle stopped twenty metres away. We waited. He looked at us. Eventually he chewed a piece of grass and looked at us some more. That was the whole encounter.

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