Well the camera is the cheap part. It's the lenses that break the wallet. I bought the beginning level SLR camera Nikon d-40 cost me close to 500 after tax and came with 1 small lens. For wildlife pictures you need big lenses and the smallest recommended is 300mm and its worth another $600. The one I want is 500mm and its $1400. And these are lower end models more for hobby photographers. Some lenses are 3-4-5 thousand dollars!
Photography can be ridiculously expensive.
With that being said for hobby people they are making it more affordable.
So for $400 bucks you can have a very nice camera, and then the lenses are up too you.
This is my camera
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Ni...main-2-400.jpg
And this is an idea of what wildlife lenses look like.
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography..._500/size2.jpg