A morning in the life of a Cheetah family.
We spent the morning in the Maasai Mara following this beautiful Cheetah and her two adorable cubs. We first found them as they were resting and waiting for the sun to come up. Gradually the cubs became more lively and started playing with each other. In their excitement they got rather too close to a lone male Buffalo and when they realised their predicament they shot off. In doing so they disturbed an African Scrub Hare which suddenly started to run. The cubs gave chase but couldn’t keep up. In stepped Mum and in a flash had brought down the hare. The family then enjoyed an early morning snack. After some more play time including with the tail of the unfortunate hare the family set off. They climbed a termite mound to get a better view of the terrain.
The mother spotted a small herd of Impala and Thompson’s Gazelle across the river. There then ensued a prolonged and slow hunt as the female worked her way ever closer to the Impala and gazelles. We lost sight of her for quite some time and then suddenly she burst out of the long grass and the herd scattered. She had her sights firmly fixed on an Impala fawn which she brought down some distance from us and out of sight of my camera. She brought the unfortunate fawn back towards us and settled down in some long grass keeping a low profile as some Hyenas had been roused by the commotion of the chase. She started calling for the cubs and she wandered off to find them. They all came back to the carcass and had their second meal of the morning.
What a treat to witness a morning in the life of a Cheetah family.