Even though martial eagles are the biggest eagles in Africa, ʜᴜɴᴛing one of the continent’s biggest lizards is still difficult. Rodney Nombekana, a 43-year-old safari and photography guide, is highly recognized for his safari excursions and in-depth knowledge of the wildlife in the Kruger National Park. He shares his enthusiasm with his clients on each trip.
He captured the amazing image of Africa’s greatest eagle bringing down and devouring a monitor lizard during one of his safaris. He said that he visited Ngotso whilst on a safari drive in order to search for the Ngotso lion pride and the area’s resident leopards. The Ngotso male lion was the only one they could find, so they sat and observed him for a long time. One of his buddies, Trevor, who was also participating in the sighting, saw a martial eagle that had just caught a monitor lizard!
It was so amazing and he had never seen anything like that before! Two incredible sightings in one location, however all the cameras were focused on the eagle rather than the lion. He took his visitors to their favorite location, Timbavati Picnic Spot, to give them breakfast after roughly an hour of watching the struggle.
After returning from breakfast, they saw that the eagle was still engaged in its attempt to ᴋɪʟʟ the lizard. It took the lizard a total of five hours to give up, and when it did, the eagle finally made the grab, which was undoubtedly amazing to see. The eagle then continued to eat its well-earned supper as they left.
Rodney Nombekana said that the bush was full of sᴜʀᴘʀɪsᴇs; you never knew when you would see soᴍᴇᴛʜing rare, and just when you thought you had seen it all, soᴍᴇᴛʜing new showed up to amaze you once again. Therefore, let’s stay in the moment and take pleasure in nature’s unfolding as it happens!