Brodie Hopkins Media

26/10/2025

Northeast India is known for its iconic megafauna – from tigers and leopards, to elephants and one-horned rhinoceroses. However, as the sun goes down, that’s when the region really lights up…

Each evening, millions upon millions of fireflies emerge for an intricate nocturnal ritual – the synchronised flashing of their butts in the hopes of attracting a mate!

Captured via the stacking of multiple long-exposure shots, this image shows the illuminated paths of countless flickering fireflies on their nightly noctilucent voyage.

–

Fireflies (Abscondita anceyi), Kaziranga, India 🇮🇳

–

24/10/2025

A Rose-Ringed Parakeet nestles into a crevice in the rusty red brickwork of Agra Fort…

Constructed in 1573, Agra Fort was for centuries used as a residence for the emperors of the Mughal dynasty. Today, it is primarily home to tourists and birds.

Rose-Ringed Parakeets are one of the few species of parrot that have successfully adapted to urban environments. Despite being native to India and the African Sahel, their prevalence in the pet trade has led to rogue populations emerging in a number of cities around the world.

From Tokyo and Tehran to Los Angeles and London, Rose-Winged Parakeets have shown themselves to be highly cosmopolitan birds, taking advantage of nooks and crannies on almost every continent!

–

Rose-Ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri), Agra Fort, India 🇮🇳

–

22/10/2025

It’s not exactly easy to take a unique photograph of one of the world’s most photographed buildings – but what if we add monkeys? 🐵

–

Taj Mahal, Agra, India 🇮🇳

–

01/10/2025

For the latest episode of Protect The World, I’ve travelled to the northern Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, in order to visit an organisation striving to implement sustainable waste management systems across the Indian Himalayan region.

Through a combination of technological innovation, women-led entrepreneurship, and a passion for youth engagement, Waste Warriors is rewriting what waste management looks like in 21st century India.

From lush forests to snow-capped peaks, India’s Himalayan region is one of the most ecologically diverse places on the planet. Sadly, however, due to floods and landslides, I wasn’t able to cover the mountainous side of Waste Warriors’ work. The effects of climate change in the region are worsening every year, and over 400 people have been killed by extreme weather in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh since June.

As always, half the money that came into the Patreon this month was donated directly to Waste Warriors, plus a bit extra. But Waste Warriors have also set up a disaster relief fund for the communities they work in, and if you have the means, I would strongly encourage you to contribute what you can.

Donate here: https://give.do/fundraisers/ongoing-support-for-disaster-relief-in-uttarakhand-and-himachal-pradesh

A huge thank you to everyone who supports this project, and to the incredible team at Waste Warriors for welcoming me into their world. If you enjoyed the episode, please be sure to share it with your friends and family, and stay tuned for more exciting updates to come.

Thanks for watching!

–

For this episode of Protect The World, I’ve travelled to the northern Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, in order to visit an organisation st...

29/09/2025

Sunset at a watering hole in Etosha National Park. I’m watching a lioness strut slowly towards the water’s edge. The dozens of nearby zebra and springbok stand to attention, observing her even more closely than I am. As she drinks, she lifts head occasionally to scan her surroundings, looking for potential danger, or potential prey.

I’m so entranced by this captivating cat that I almost fail to notice the huge, lumbering creature that has strolled into the background – a critically endangered black rhinoceros.

Several hundred thousand black rhinos used to roam from Nigeria to Sudan and all the way down to South Africa. Today, this individual is one of the 3,000 or so left living in isolated pockets of southern Africa, under constant threat from poachers.

Even here in Etosha – one of the continent’s premier national parks – it’s a constant battle. Two poachers were arrested just last week, and three were killed in a dramatic shootout with rangers towards the end of last year.

With rhino horns still fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market due to their nonsensical use in traditional Chinese medicine, it’s a problem that, sadly, won’t be going away any time soon.

–

Lioness (Panthera leo) with Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), Etosha National Park, Namibia 🇳🇦

–

28/09/2025

The Matriarch 🐘

One of my absolute favourite shots from Namibia is this image of an adult elephant standing over a pair of juveniles as they take a mid-afternoon drink.

Elephants live in deeply matriarchal societies, with family units comprising of several adult females and their young. Males separate from the group in their teenage years, and while the family is typically led by an elder female, the adults work cooperatively to find food and water, defend the group from predators, and care for their young.

I can’t quite emphasise enough the social intelligence of elephants. They form kinship groups comprising of multiple unrelated family units, they give each other names and are capable of communicating hundreds of different messages with distinct vocalisations, and they also display a wide range of complex emotions – including grief, compassion and humour.

As just one example, in 1990, researchers observed the birth of a calf in Kenya. In the morning, around 80 elephants circled around the expectant mother, including eight large male bulls for protection. While in labour, a smaller group of females and young stood close to the mother, making rumbling noises and flapping their ears. One individual assisted the mother throughout the experience, allowing her to push against her back for support during contractions. After the baby was born, the mother slowly walked with him as he explored his surroundings, with even more rumbling and ear-flapping observed as the newborn was introduced to each of his new family members.

I try not to play favourites when it comes to wildlife, as every creature has its own unique role in our global ecosystem, but there's something truly special about these gentle, generous giants.

–

African Elephants (Loxodonta africana), Etosha National Park, Namibia 🇳🇦

–

25/09/2025

One of the highlights of Etosha National Park was stumbling across this little cutie who was taking a nap in the middle of the road, and who then proceeded to raise her head, look at us disinterestedly, and then return to her nap. Respect.

Now, I absolutely love The Lion King. Who doesn’t? But one of the biggest problems with it is the way it portrays hyenas. Generations of children have been led to believe that hyenas are cruel and conniving, or dirty and dim-witted. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Hyenas live in complex, matriarchal societies consisting of up to 80 individuals. Their clans are more unified than wolf packs and their social relations more closely resemble primates than other carnivores. In one study, hyenas were shown to outperform chimpanzees (our closest evolutionary relative) in a range of problem-solving tasks that required group cooperation.

Hyenas are some of the most clever and communal creatures to roam the plains of Africa and beyond – and they definitely deserve a little more love than Disney afforded them!

–

Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta), Etosha National Park, Namibia 🇳🇦

–

23/09/2025

Even the largest and heaviest bird on the planet needs to start out somewhere!

This is a family of common ostriches, photographed in Namibia’s Etosha National Park. The chicks here are only a month or two old, and their parents are working overtime to raise them into healthy young ostriches. While both parents raise their young cooperatively, it’s dad who takes the lead – aggressively defending his chicks from potential predators, and also teaching them how to find the juicy plants that make up the majority of an ostrich’s diet.

Despite their best efforts, only around 15% of the chicks will survive their first year of life, with jackals, eagles and hyenas posing the greatest threat. However, for those that do make it into adulthood, lifespans of up to 60 years await – making ostriches one of the longest-lived birds on the planet.

Within five months, the chicks will already be half the size of their parents, and they’ll be fully grown within a year. So these first few months are undoubtedly the most critical for a fledging family of these fabulous, flightless birds.

–

Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus), Etosha National Park, Namibia 🇳🇦

–

21/09/2025

What big eyes you have! 👁️👁️

Sitting around the campfire one night in northern Namibia, I kept getting glittering glimpses of eyeshine bouncing around the nearby trees. After much aimless running around, one of the mysterious creatures finally sat still long enough for me to get a good look at it.

I quickly realised, however, that it was getting a far better look at me!

This curious critter is a Mohol Bushbaby, and it is utterly adorable. Its enormous eyes afford it excellent night vision, but it also has incredible hearing, using both senses to pluck insects out of mid-air on pitch-black Namibian nights.

One of my favourite facts about bushbabies is that they often play tag. Younger individuals will bounce haphazardly from branch to branch, while another chases after them. Presumably, this explains why it was so difficult to get a photo of one 🤷‍♂️

–

Mohol Bushbaby (Galago moholi), Waterberg Plateau National Park, Namibia 🇳🇦

–

20/09/2025

I put a lot of effort into taking these dik-dik pics. I hope you all enjoy them 👀

This is the Damara Dik-Dik – one of the world’s smallest antelopes. Found across northern Namibia and southern Angola, these dik-diks truly are tiny, rarely exceeding 15 inches in height.

Life as a dik-dik sounds unbelievably stressful. Due to their tastiness, almost everyone wants to munch on a dik-dik – including us humans. Lions, leopards, pythons and baboons will all take a dik-dik if the opportunity presents itself.

Because dik-diks are so small, they don’t last very long before they need to replenish themselves, and they have the highest energy requirements of any grazing mammal, meaning they need to eat almost constantly.

Dik-diks are also highly territorial, and will chase away rival dik-diks from their preferred feeding grounds. Within their territories, dik-diks also have a network of planned escape routes that they use whenever they feel threatened.

It was truly a privilege to be able to see a dik-dik up close, and an even greater privilege to share the dik-dik with you.

–

Damara Dik-Dik (Madoqua damarensis), Grootfontein, Namibia 🇳🇦

–