Arid Apparition

Photograph by Maroesjka Lavigne

Story by Katie Jewett

Lumbering across Namibia’s Etosha National Park, a solitary black rhino (Diceros bicornis) emerges from the vast, pastel landscape like an arid apparition. While it’s common for rhinos to wallow in mud and dust to ward off biting insects, the salt deposits that form in shallow depressions at Etosha paint the animals’ skin a ghostly hue.

As part of her “Land of Nothingness” project, photographer Maroesjka Lavigne traveled to Namibia in search of scenes in which plants and animals blend into their natural environment. There she encountered this lone black rhino practically vanishing into the backdrop of the ancient salt-pan lakebed. It was an unforgettable close encounter with a magnificent yet threatened animal. “My heart felt like it was going to explode from adrenaline,” Lavigne says. This photograph was selected as the Grand Prize winner of the California Academy of Sciences’ 2016 BigPicture photography competition.

Despite promising conservation efforts in recent decades, both black rhinos and white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) now face an increasingly aggressive threat: poachers seeking to cash in on the illegal market for rhino horn.

Etosha National Park, Namibia