Cheetah cubs in training

From a young age cheetah cubs learn to hunt by shadowing their mother. This means that often young cheetah cubs will chase other animals around the plains, just to gain experience, whether they would be considered prey or not. In one morning in Ndutu we witnessed a 7 month old pair of cheetah cubs chase zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, a jackal and several species of birds. Finally their mother caught them a Thompson's gazelle fawn to allow them to fine tune their tripping techniques. Even once they had succeeded in tripping the fawn the cheetahs looked confused as to what to do next. Mum came to the rescue, biting the fawns neck, so that they could enjoy lunch.

An over-exited cheetah cub chasing part of the migration.

The same cheetah cub bravely chasing a Jackal.

The cheetah cub looking a little less brave as the Jackal turned around and barked at him.

One of the cubs successfully tripping the fawn. 

The cheetah mum and gazelle mum watched on as the cheetah cubs chase the fawn.

A morning with Cheetah cubs

One very early morning in Ndutu we came across the same cheetah family featured in my first ever blog post, Cheetahs in the rain, which was about a Mum and her 2 young cheetah cubs who were caught in the rain storm. When we came across the Cheetahs they were just waking up to the sun peering through the trees. As they woke up the Cheetah cubs became a lot more active playing on the bank of the river and even chasing after hartebeest. As always the young cheetahs in Ndutu, Tanzania, full of surprises and amazing to watch!

A young cheetah cub yawning as the first rays of light woke him up!

The two cheetah cubs playing on the river bank

Mum watching over the cheetah cubs as they play fought

An over enthusiastic cheetah cub chasing hartebeest under the watchful eye of bat eared foxes

The cheetah Mum surveying the marsh, on the lookout for breakfast

The Big Five

The big five are traditionally the five most dangerous animals in Africa to hunt. It is also a sign of a good safari trip if you are lucky enough to see them all. As much as I enjoy capturing wild animals in situations which make them look particularly dangerous, it can be just as fun photographing them at their most passive and vulnerable moments.

A large male lion asleep a-top some rocks in the Serengeti under the watchful eye of a lizard.
The lizard was carefully capturing the flies that were landing on the lion's noise, hiding behind the rock
 whenever the lion opened his eyes.

A few week old baby elephant following the herd across a track in the Serengeti.

A 5 month old leopard cub looking for his mother through the grass in
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. 

A Cape buffalo taking a mud-bath in the Ngorongoro Crater.

A family of black rhinoceros in front of the flamingos on the lake in the Ngorongoro crater, Tanzania.
Unfortunately due to the high value placed upon the rhino's horn there is still a level of
 rhinoceros poaching, and the Black rhinoceros in particular is critically endangered.  

Sultan of Ranthambore

I've already blogged about the first time that we saw Sultan, a year old tiger cub, but 2 days later we came across him again. From behind the rocks we could hear the sounds of 2 female tigers fighting. As it was T39's territory we looked around for Sultan as T39, also known as Noor, was his mother. Further up the hill Sultan was spotted making his way down through the rocks towards the trucks on the path below. Un-perturbed by the tourists he made his way towards a shady pool to cool down.

Sultan turning to pose behind a red dragonfly

Looking back to check we weren't following him!

 

Cooling off in the shade

 

Our close Cheetah encounter.

One morning in Ndutu at the crack of dawn we came across a Cheetah family with 3 young cubs. It looked as though Mum had just caught a young Thompson's Gazelle for breakfast. Despite the fresh meat in front of them one of the Cheetah cubs got distracted by a lone wildebeest calf. Soon all three cubs were darting through the safari trucks before chasing the young wildebeest across the plains. Unfortunately the cubs were not yet old enough to understand how to trip prey, so were hopelessly chasing the wildebeest in circles until Mum came to the rescue, sprinting across the plains and tripping the wildebeest in one swipe of the paw.

It wasn't until after their second breakfast that the Cheetah cubs noticed us and came to say 'hi!'

The 3 cheetah cubs tucking into their second breakfast

 

The cheetahs playing tug of war over the wildbeest calf

Cheetah cub portrait

Cheetah cub checking out her reflection on the side of our truck
(probably my favourite iPhone photo)

The lions and the spare wheel cover

One morning, while in Ndutu in Tanzania, we came across a large pride of lions, about 20 in total including cubs. They mischievously stalked around our truck, peering around the exhausts and through the muddy back windows. A male started tugging at the spare wheel cover, deciding it would make a good plaything. We followed the lions and our spare wheel cover from the plains towards the marsh area, where we had a wonderful view of them breeching the top of a hill. Eventually the lions stopped on the bank of the big marsh, half resting on the short grass the other half playing hide and seek with the spare wheel cover. Eventually one of the older female lions snatched away the spare wheel cover and hide it in the long reeds of the marsh, causing the restless lions to find trees to climb.

 

The pride at first light

Lionesses, with a golden hale from the morning sun

A cheeky female lion peering around our exhaust

The male chewing at our spare tire cover (shot through our back window!)

The Male lion proudly walking away with his prize

A young lion cub gazing over the marsh

Mum and lion cub playing with the spare wheel cover

'Help I'm not sure I'm supposed to climb trees!'

Sorry for the long blog post, but it was a great morning, and I wanted to include enough photographs so that they could tell the story.