Real recordings · Hikmicro thermal camera
Thermal footage from the field.
Every clip here was recorded on a drive and is shown as the camera captured it: trimmed and cropped for the web (one clip also stabilised, and marked), never recoloured or staged. Dates and times come from the camera’s own display.
One night: 5 June 2025
Six moments from a single drive, in the order they were filmed.
18:09 · First contact
An elephant steps out of the thicket, close enough to fill the frame. Even the fine ridges of the skin read as heat.
18:21 · The crossing
The herd crosses the track. Look low, between the legs of the adults: a calf, keeping pace.
18:27 · At the water
The calf stays tucked against its mother while the herd drinks. Water reads dark and cool; every animal stands out against it.
18:41 · Reflections
From further off, still water mirrors the herd. Warmth shows twice: once on the bank, once on the surface.
19:08 · The treeline
Impala at the edge of a clearing, in full darkness. Without light, the guide still finds every one of them.
20:16 · The long way home
Three hours after sunset the whole landscape is still legible: every trunk, every branch, the ridge beyond.
18:36 · The ear
An elephant’s ears carry a network of blood vessels close to the skin, part of how the animal sheds heat. On the thermal camera that warmth shows as bright, branching lines across a cooler ear. This frame is shown exactly as the camera saved it, including its on-screen display.
25 May 2026 · Black-hot
Thermal cameras can flip their scale. Here the camera was set to black-hot, so warmer reads darker: a pack of African wild dogs trots up the track as dark shapes against the ground.
6 June 2026 · Dawn
Just after first light, still in black-hot mode: a lioness leads her cubs across a clearing towards the ridge. The camera still picks them out clearly against the grass as the day begins.
Trimmed, cropped and stabilised for the web, with a one-second dissolve so it loops. Not recoloured.
Films on YouTube
Longer recordings from our drives. Videos load from YouTube only when you press play.