Michael Wilkins
Menu
Photograph of a male greater kudu standing in profile in dry scrub, head raised, its long corkscrew horns rising in a double twist above thin white stripes on its flank.

The Spiral

Pumba Game Reserve, South Africa · December 2022

1D X Mark II, 400 millimetres, f 5.6, 1/500 of a second, ISO 320

Two and a half turns. It takes six years to grow them.

A greater kudu bull standing on the top of a rise in flat afternoon light. The horns are the whole reason for the frame — two and a half full turns, which takes about six years to grow, and which only read properly from side-on with the head up. He gave me that for a few seconds before dropping back into the scrub, where an animal this size becomes invisible almost instantly.

Part of Pumba, a series.