Mom and 5

I was lucky enough to recently spend a whole afternoon with a female cheetah and her 5 cubs. After taking a mere 300 images of the little beauties I thought it would only be fare to share a handful of those photo’s with you as well as a short rundown of the afternoon.

 

After some time we eventually tracked down the female cheetah, by following a trail of guinea fowl feathers which had ‘cubs lunch’ written all over it. Mom was lying in the shade of a shepherd tree when we arrived, but there was no sign of the much anticipated cheetah cubs. After 10 minutes of admiring the female cheetah one little head emerged from the thicket of the tree. All covered in burrs and grass seeds the tiny cub, only 2 months old, showed its face. One by one the other 4 cubs followed in pursuit, each one of them aiming straight for mom’s head for a quick meet and greet.

The cubs played with one another for the next hour to come, as mom rested patiently in the shade. As the last rays of the day began falling behind the horizon mom stood up and led the gang straight through the open grassland to a nearby hill to get a better vantage point of her surroundings before settling down for the night. The cubs took this moment of mom’s diverted attention to come and investigate what this four wheeled, talking object was all about. One cub was even brave enough to come and sniff the wheel of this big talking object!

It was not long until mom called for cubs and they returned back to her safety. We left the mother with her 5 cubs suckling at the milk bar at sunset, after a wonderful afternoon getting to know all the little characters.

 

By Ruth Nussbaum