Hello and welcome to the 2022 Pangolin Photo Challenge.
My name is Toby Jermyn from Pangolin Photo Safaris...and you find me today
in the Northern Cape - in South Africa - at the Kalahari wildlife project,
which is the rescue and rehabilitation center that we are supporting.
Now in this video, I'm going to explain to you how the challenge
is going to work this year.
We've got some announcements of new challenges, different challenges.
There is also a couple of rule changes and some prizes.
Now I'm going to get to that in a minute, but just before I do
that, I have a very special guest that I want to introduce you to.
So let's go and see her.
I would like to introduce you to Casino.
Casino is a female pangolin who was rescued from the illegal wildlife trade.
In fact, she was rescued in a sting operation in the carpark of a casino,
and that's why she's called Casino.
So, she has been at the rehab center for a while now.
She's been putting on good weight, getting stronger.
Spending lots of time out in the felt foraging for ants with John and Muhammad.
So I am delighted to tell you that today we're going to be
releasing her back into the wild.
If you stick around to the end of the video, we're going to capture
that moment for you, hopefully.
So we'll let her get back to sleep now.
And then we'll go ahead outside and I'll tell you more about the
center that I am currently in.
Okay.
So in the pangolin photo challenge this year, we have made a few changes and
we hope you're going to appreciate it.
Firstly, we are going to have five categories rather than
four, as we had last year.
A big rule change that we're going to make is that we're going to
allow photographs from last year and this year into the challenge.
So every photograph you've taken, must've been taken in 2021 and 2022, as well.
In last year's Pangolin Photo Challenge, we asked you to make
donations to Pangolin.Africa.
This year is going to be slightly different...where we are collectively
going to buy stuff that is well needed by the Kalahari Wildlife Project, which
is the name of the rehabilitation center that we are supporting the home of Casino.
So, the rehab center needs a lot of equipment.
Some of it quite small from the blankets, um, veterinary supplies, up to more
expensive items...for example, we've got trackers that we need to install.
We've got radio equipment that we need so that we can track the pangolins when
they are being rescued and sent out.
This is a transportation and sleeping box.
We need to buy plenty of these that we can leave with vets, with
law enforcement, with wildlife departments, so that we don't have
to rush out to get a box to them.
So they have a box ready to bring the pangolins here.
Now, when they get here, they are stabilized.
They are treated.
They are made better immediately.
And then they're taken to a secure facility elsewhere where they are then,
rehabilitated out in the field with John and Mohamad, walking with them,
helping them to get back, to use, to foraging for ants out in the veld.
So we need lots of stuff.
So you'll be able to go onto the website and find something that
you want to buy for the center.
And then that will be your entry price into the Pangolin Photo Challenge 2022.
Here the challenges for the 2022 Pangolin Photo Challenge.
Before I start.
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as you know, we announce all the winners of the different challenges
- throughout the year - here on YouTube.
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Okay.
Number one.
The old favorite...'birds of the world'.
Birds of the world makes it come back as category number one.
Everybody loves photographing birds.
Birds are easy to photograph all around the year.
So we'd like to keep it nice and simple for the first challenge.
Challenge number two, 'water, water everywhere'.
I think I might've pilfered that from the rhyme of the ancient Mariner,
but in this challenge, what I want to see something watery in the image.
Now this could be a bird bath.
It could be a lake.
It could be a river.
It could be the sea.
It could be raindrops, but there must be an element of water in the image.
So get out of there, even if the weather's not so great and
get some shots, you never know.
Um, maybe something damp...I don't know...But anyway,
that's the second challenge.
Water, water, everywhere.
Challenge number three.
Okay.
I'm calling this one 'two's company'.
So what I want to see in the image is, two individual animals,
birds, whatever it might be.
They don't even have to be the same species, but they must
dominate the image, two's company.
Now you can even have a photograph of a herd of something...as long
as the central figures and your eye is drawn to two animals.
So that is challenge number three, two's company.
Okay.
Challenge number four, we are going to celebrate the small stuff.
So that's what I'm going to call this...'the small stuff'
is challenge number four.
So what I want to do is I want to see the smaller, the smaller
things, the intriguing stuff, not necessarily all macro.
So let's make a rule that the subject has to be no bigger than a tennis ball.
You know, I'm not going to sit there and ask you to have a tape measure and measure
them as you go along, but it can be an animal, a bird...It could be an insect.
It can even be a flower.
I'm going to allow flowers into this as well.
So anything natural, as long as it is no bigger than a
tennis ball, the small stuff.
That's challenge number 4.
Okay.
Challenge number five.
This is the only challenge that I'm going to have a time restraint
on, and it is going to be 'the best photograph that you have taken in 2022'.
Okay.
So this is the best of 2022.
This is the image I want to see must be taken between January the
first, until December 31st, 2022.
Now this can be also anything as long as it's natural.
So actually I'm going to include landscapes in this one as well.
So if you are a landscape photographer and you want to go and take a
beautiful natural landscape, I'm going to allow it into this challenge.
As with the last challenge in 2021, there is also going to be a grand prize for
the portfolio of the best five images.
Now you must submit one image per challenge.
You can if you'd like, go and enter five birds of the world images to
hopefully enter, and win that one, but that means you're going to be
ineligible for the portfolio prize.
So bear that in mind, go out there and get five images into the portfolio.
These will be judged on their individual merits and the person
with the highest scoring portfolio will win the grand prize.
Everybody wants to know what you can win.
So here all the prizes for the 2022 Pangolin Photo Challenge.
Each of the five Pangolin Photo Challenges has a winner, runner-up
and three highly commended prizes.
The winner of each challenge will get a four night, five day stay at the Pangolin
Chobe Hotel in Northern Botswana, on the border of the Chobe National Park.
During your stay, you will spend plenty of time out on the river with
the Pangolin photo hosts that you may well have seen from YouTube out
on the river photographing, and they will be assisting you to take your
wildlife photography to the next level.
Don't worry if you don't have a camera, as we can even supply one
of those for you free of charge too.
The grand portfolio prize will be a 10 day Chobe Delta and Kalahari
Safari, which starts on the Pangolin Voyager houseboat on the Chobe River.
This floating lodge will be your home for the first three nights, and you have
access to the pangolin photo boats too.
You will then head down into the Okavango Delta to spend time in this
world heritage site, followed by a few days, along with the Pangolin Photo
hosts, down in the central Kalahari.
The value of this prize is an amazing $20,000.
As with the 2021 Pangolin Photo Challenge, there will also
be a lucky draw at the end.
Every single image that you have entered will count as one raffle
ticket, which could win you a seven day Best of Chobe Photo Safari.
This safari is three days on the Pangolin Voyager houseboat, and also
three days at the Pangolin Chobe Hotel...And has a value of $7,500 US
dollars for a safari for two people.
If you're interested in learning more about the prizes and the packages that
we offer, then I will leave a link in the description down below, and you can check
out all the safaris that we have...in case you can't wait, and need to travel now.
So I think you all will agree, that is pretty significant as the prize pool.
So really, get going.
All you have to do, to enter now, is you have to visit our website.
You can go on there and you can register.
If you enetered year, we're going to ask you to register again for this challenge.
Then you have to go to Pangolin.Africa and go and buy something for
the rehabilitation center.
There's loads to choose from.
Different price points all the way through.
So please go ahead, make your contribution.
Then shortly after that, it'll take a little bit of time.
We will activate your account and then you can start loading images.
That's the last bit of admin you really have to do...but it's
a very, very simple process.
The judging is going to be done by a whole load of pro
photographers that we work with.
There's a list on the website.
There's going to be a link in the description down below,
so you can see who those are.
So you're going to have some of the top photographers in the field of wildlife
photography, judging your images.
So, uh, yeah, we wish you all the best and, uh, let's get started.
Now, as I promised you, there is a very special moment
that we're going to have now.
So we're going to head out.
Um, we are gonna wait for a Casino.
She's going to wake up in a minute and then we're going to take out
in a minute, and trhen we are going to release her into the wild.
So let's go see that happen, shall we.
Once Casino had woken up, we transported her from the rehabilitation center
after one last checkup out to a nature reserve, which had been
identified as the release site.
She was then loaded into a four by four from the last leg of her journey.
And John and Muhammad are her pangolin protectors and they had already been out
and identified a nice big hill that they wanted to release Casino onto immediately.
So she could start feeding.
Now the trick here is that you have to kind of introduce the
pangolin to their new food source.
So immediately she could smell the ants.
They must be in the vicinity.
Um, as you can see, she's very calm ...in Mohammed's hands.
Anyway, then the magic happened and we realized she was ready to go.
As she extended her long, long, sticky tongue, almost tasting the ants...and
we knew that she was ready to feed.
It was then the turn for John to bid her farewell as we placed her on the ground.
As you can see, she's got a satellite tracker and a VHF tracker, but we
must assure you, these are incredibly lightweight and they represent no
more than 5% of her body weight.
So she will be totally unimpeded.
This we need, to be able to track her and make sure that she is doing okay
for the first few months of her release.
So we set her off...as with most releases, it was never going to
be a straight towards camera.
Anyway, that evening we set-up...Using the VHF to go and track her and
make sure that she was okay.
We managed to film a short sequence on our cell phones and this is Casino...Busy,
busy digging away at that ant nest...Sticking her tongue right the way
in to get all the ants out of the bottom.
So we wish her all the best.
We know that she is going to be safe and much, much happier
and, uh, good luck Casino.
Thank you very much for being part of our lives just for this moment.
And thank you for watching this.
We appreciate your support.