Kgalagadi: Cheetah Chase and Kill

Hi guys!

Sorry it’s been so long, but I’ve had some internet access issues.  Namely, I’m house sitting and didn’t have internet access till today.

Anyhoo to make up for the radio silence, I hereby present our most spectacular experience at the Kgalagadi: a mother cheetah teaching her four cubs how to hunt.

 

I warn you though, that for those of us who get our steaks wrapped in plastic, this might be difficult to look at.  It was, indeed, difficult to watch.  You don’t know who to root for – the young cheetah who were learning how to stalk and kill their prey, or the tiny springbok, probably a week or so old.

But this is mother nature, taking her course.  None of our supermarket-morals apply.  It was intense, upsetting and beautiful.

This is what we saw when we first spotted them:

 

Where are the cheetah, you ask?  Just look closer ... isn't incredible how they blend in?

 

  When we pulled up (there were at least 4 or 5 other cars) we thought we had missed all the action as it looked like the mom and her cubs were crowded around, already eating:

 

But then, little lazarus springbok rose and ran for it, once:

 

Twice:

THREE TIMES:

FOURTH TIME:

By the fifth time, mom had gotten a little tired of the kids messing around.  Thankfully for us, the cubs’ antics brought them very close to our car and we got the best shots of the afternoon:

 

 

 

(PS, This is how all my cheetah-under-the tree-shots could look, if I played with them all in Photoshop, but with 50+ pictures in this post it would take me forever ... sorry!)

 That same day, we had another very close encounter with a cheetah:

She may have been the same cheetah mom (note the radio collar) but the cubs weren’t with her.  She came so close to our car that our lens wasn’t focusing correctly and she ended up going behind the truck.  Amazing.

In total, we had 9 cheetah sightings.  Most of them were like this though:

So I’m not going to torture you with the other 100 or so photos of cheetahs in the shade …

All I'll say is that it was incredible, truly.  I felt beyond privileged to be able to witness these exquisite animals from only meters away.