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.

Ndutu - Nirvana?

After a few fantastic days in the Serengeti I was a little sad to leave, especially after the amusing antics of Poser Leopard. However my group had promised me that the next stop on our trip; this amazing place called Ndutu, was simply nirvana. I was happily imagining a place where the sun was always shining, the migration was passing through and leopard cubs were playing with cheetah cubs. My group had neglected to mention that we would be catching the start of the rainy season and the chance of thunderstorms was reasonably high.

Sheets of rain moving across the plains in Ndutu.

 A tawny eagle taking off in the sunshine against the dark backdrop of storm clouds

The storm clouds being photographed by my Dad who was enjoying the challenge of the ever changing
weather.

A surprise leopard sighting as leopards usually keep to themselves in Ndutu.
This one was chased up a tree by a large female lion, but still looked great against
the storm clouds.

Judging by the look on this little guy's face I'm not sure he enjoyed the rain much!

I would still have to agree that my week in Ndutu was an amazing experience and the 4 or 5 rain storms that we had only added to the experience. My previous blog post Cheetahs in the rain features more examples of the photographs to be had if one braves the weather.