This is a bat-eared fox kit at a den in the Masai Mara Conservancy in Kenya. Notice how the catchlight in the eyes that's reflecting the sky makes this image come alive. A small dot of light reflecting from a flash can never simulate this beautiful and natural look, and that’s why I don’t like fill flash with animals. I shot this in 2016 when I still owned the Canon 7D Mark II, and although it extended the range of a telephoto due to the 1.6x crop factor, it produced too much noise so I sold it. The noise isn’t obvious here, but in low light situations in which the ISO is raised to 2000 or above, the pictures were very disappointing. I took this with a 400mm focal length plus the 1.6x crop factor giving me 640mm of focal length. My settings were 1/640, f/9, and 1600 ISO. I learned recently that bat-eared foxes are insectivorous, and they use their huge ears (not evident yet in the babies) to listen for the faintest sounds of terminates and other yummy bugs just below the surface of the ground.
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