Amazing cheetah interaction

It was a beautiful afternoon drive when we went to relocate a family of four cheetahs, a mother and three cubs of about 18 months old. We successfully found them again just before sunset, the light was beautiful, everywhere we looked was beautiful, with the golden shimmer towards the four cheetahs. It was a very good photographic opportunity and my guests took so many photos.

The cubs were very playful and that made it one of the best cheetah sightings I have ever witnessed. They started walking in an easterly direction towards a rocky section which got us very excited because I knew they might climb on one of the rocks for elevation, and that happening with golden light added to what would be every photographer’s dream. Camera shutters worked overtime as the animals jumped from rock to rock!

It became more interesting when we saw a herd of impala running away so fast. Our question was what are they running away from? The cheetahs we were watching were not interested in anything, they looked so relaxed. Everybody was focused away from them, trying to see what the problem was. Then suddenly the four cheetahs descended the rocks with a lot of panic as there was a male cheetah approaching them! He caused them to scatter in different directions. The male cheetah was very persistent in catching up with them, and we tried our best to keep up. The terrain was very rocky but we finally relocated all five of them together. Their social interaction was such to learn something new. From what I could understand it seemed as though the male cheetah had had enough of the cubs relying on their mother, and he even tried to mate with the female cheetah in the presence of the cubs.

It was an incredible sighting from beginning to the end. Within 45 minutes with the same animals we were lucky to experience a diversity of behaviour.