20th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Drama in the river with happy end

When I arrived on sight I saw many many Baboons in the dry river bank of the Tsavo river (Tsavo National Park, Kenya). I that there was a baboon in a puddle. I thought how original is this i want to make of a video of this baboon having a bath.... this is unusual. So i began to film it and after a few seconds i saw that it was very strange and that the baboon was not having a bath but was caught by a croc. When he decided to move or to try to escape from the jaws of the croc, this one was taking him back to the water and was drowning him.... happily for the baboon there was not a lot of water and he managed to put the head out of the water each time so that he could breathe. The most impressive was that the water puddle was surrounded by perhaps 200 hundreds baboons that were watching this drama. In silence when the baboon was not moving but they all screamed terribly each time there was a try to escape. That was very loud and dramatic. The Baboon tried several times to escape but it was caught by an arm quite deep in the Croc's throat.when he was not trying he was staying very very calm as if he understood that moving represented the danger of being drowned of the croc was going further where water was deeper. He was expecting the good moment to try again and again and was getting closer from the edge where he could have more support with the ground. After several tries he managed finally to escape and the group screamed so loud and they all went together far from there. He was injured in the face so I can imagine easily that the croc caught him by the head while he was drinking in the river.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 10.2022
Date Uploaded: 11.2022
Photo Location: Kenya
Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
Copyright: © Nicolas Urlacher