Michael Wilkins
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A white rhino stands in profile on green grass with oxpeckers perched on its ear and shoulder.

Rhino with Passengers

Pumba Game Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa · December 2022

1D X Mark II, 400 millimetres, f 5.6, 1/500 of a second, ISO 200

The oxpeckers ride for free.

A white rhino in full profile is one of the oldest silhouettes on earth, and the oxpeckers treat it as public transport — one working the ear, another the shoulder. Mud from a recent wallow still darkens the hide. I photographed the arrangement as I found it: one enormous passenger vehicle, standing in good grass, going nowhere in particular.

Part of Pumba, a series.