Zarek Cockar - Privately Guided Safaris

23/01/2025

Shameless plug. I've been nominated as one of this year's best mammalwatching guides.
If you have time and feel so inclined, I'd appreciate a vote here. You don't need to register to vote. Just select the link for the Google voting poll embedded in the text (5th paragraph). Pretty straightforward from there.

22 January 2025 Vote Now for the 2024 NUTTER Awards and Claim Your Place in History LnRiLWZpZWxke21hcmdpbi1ib3R0b206MC43NmVtfS50Yi1maWVsZC0tbGVmdHt0ZXh0LWFsaWduOmxlZnR9LnRiLWZpZWxkLS1jZW50ZXJ7dGV4dC1hbGlnbjpjZW50ZXJ9LnRiLWZpZWxkLS1yaWdodHt0ZXh0LWFsaWduOnJpZ2h0fS50Yi1maWVsZF9fc2t5cGVfcHJldmlld3twYWRk...

02/01/2025

- 2025 -
I'm looking forward to a great year of safaris, learning, exploration, growth, and fulfilment. Get in touch to join me on a journey of discovery away from the crowds.
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#2025

24/12/2024

Kismasi Njema!

09/10/2024

Gabon is not only about unrelenting humid rainforest treks. We always include a healthy dose of lazy boat rides and cold brews to watch the world go by.

06/10/2024

He's outstanding in his field.
When a full grown elephant bull is made to look small, you know the trees must be huge.
I know I've been pretty rubbish about posting on social media, so here's a Forest Elephant from a special corner of Africa, Loango National Park, in Gabon - from August.

If you're looking for a privately guided adventure to one of the most unique destinations in Africa, get in touch and we can chat about Gabon.

23/07/2024

- GIZA MREMBO -
Every once in a while, I catch big cat fever, and I guess that's OK. This particular one is pretty special.
If you're interested in seeing her, or others like her (she's not the only one), reach out and let's chat about an exclusive, privately guided safari through Central Kenya.

22/05/2024

Big Day Big Find
The 11th of May was the eBird Global Big Birding Day, when birders around the world go out to find as many bird species as possible in a 24hr period. Normally, I'm staunchly working to prop up Team Kenya, but this year I was in transit, moving across Cote d'Ivoire, with very little time for dedicated birding, racking up a paltry 37 species. But the final bird of the day more than made up for the low diversity.
Around 8pm, I was getting ready for a night walk, when I found a beautiful feather I immediately recognised as belonging to an owl. I looked up at the roof of the building next to me, and there in my red light was this stunning Fraser's Eagle-Owl, silently judging me.
Keeping my red light pointed well below it's feet, I managed to snap a couple of low light shots before leaving it in peace to continue hunting little rodents in the grass.
The other two special Eagle-Owl species in the area, Shelley's and Akun, continue to elude me, but this was a major highlight of my recent trip to Tai Forest National Park, Côte d'Ivoire.
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Privileged to be guiding for
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13/04/2024

- ZAKOUMA -
The richness and abundance of Zakouma is often astounding. A pan with almost 10,000 Black-crowned Cranes, Knob-billed Ducks, and Spurwinged Geese is also a crucial waterhole for thousands of Tiang, Lelwel's Hartebeest, Waterbuck, Kob, and more Bohor Reedbuck than most people see in a lifetime. And all of this is overflown by tens of thousands of Doves and hundreds of thousands or millions or Red-billed Quelea forming endlessly changing murmurations, swerving to escape kites, harriers, kestrels, fish eagles, and Marabous all hungry for a snack. No photos or video could ever do Rigueik Pan or nearby Dikeri justice. And I will never tire of it.
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Guiding for Chalo Africa in Zakouma National Park with massive respect for African Parks
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04/04/2024

- ADDAX -
By 2016 only around 40-60 Addax were left in the wild, in 4 disparate populations around the Sahara - fewer than 10 of these were left in Chad. They were declared Critically Endangered, and it seemed their extinction was close at hand. Unregulated hunting and poaching using automatic weapons and motorised transport across their range were at the centre of this decline. But, once again, the hard work of Sahara Conservation and Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi intervened to stop that from happening. A reintroduction programme was started in Ouadi Rimé Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve in central Chad, and by 2020, they were celebrating their first wild birth in decades.
Now, over 100 Addax roam these vast plains, a combination of introduced adults and a good number of subsequent wild births. A further 10 have been transferred further north into the Ennedi reserve at the end of last year. So while numbers are still exceptionally low, hope continues to grow for this incredible antelope.
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Like their Oryx cousins, Addax are supremely well adapted to their arid environment. They spend most of the day in the shade, nasal panting, & opting to do most of their eating in the cool hours before sunrise.
- with Chalo Africa
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31/03/2024

- Scimitar-horned Oryx -
Declared 'Extinct in the wild' in the late 90s, this species suffered precipitous declines from over-exploitation through civil war and unregulated vehicle-based hunting across their Sahara-Sahel range. But with the hard work of Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi and Sahara Conservation these Oryx now roam the deserts and plains once more through a very successful reintroduction programme in Chad's Ouadi Rimé Ouadi Achim (OROA) Faunal Reserve.
After their latest IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessment, they're now considered 'Endangered', having completely slipped over the 'Critically Endangered' designation.
Over 600 individuals now roam the dry, sandy grasslands or OROA, a combination of introduced adults, wild births, and subsequent generation births!

This is a story of conservation success and hope. Ironically, some of the highest Scimitar-horned Oryx numbers in the world are in big hunting ranches in Texas. And it's from these ranches that some of these reintroductions originate. Unregulated hunting/poaching can have disastrous effects on wildlife, but well-regulated hunting provides a value to wildlife that can result in an increase in habitat and populations.
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- With Chalo Africa
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29/03/2024

- Moila Snake -
Also known as a False Cobra, the spread hood display is so convincing that I yelled out "Cobra!" as we passed it next to the road. It was only after we'd stopped and I could get a close up view that I realised this was something else entirely.
Apparently one of the most common large snakes of the Sahara and northern Sahel, it's a primary food source for the Beaudouin's Snake-eagles so often gracing the skies.
Rear-fanged with haemotoxic venom, very little is known about the potency, but by all accounts a bite is unlikely to prove lethal.
- with

28/03/2024

The colours of Ennedi
- with .ennedi