Charlie Shugart
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
|
| p.1 #1 · Kenya- cheetah and yearlings, continued | |
As I indicated on my previous post, the hunting momma cheetah and the impalas soon disappeared from our view.
So we followed the two youngsters at a respectable distance, assuming they would lead us right to their mom.
Not so. They got temporarily lost. But I got a few images of their behaviors while they were looking (#1,2 and 3).
At one point the twins (one male and one female), lay down in frustration. Within a few minutes a Thompson's gazelle stumbled on them- and I mean ON them!. The two immediately jumped on the little (but adult) gazelle but didn't know how to make the kill. The struggling ended when the gazelle broke free and ran off. The two young cheetahs made only a half-hearted attempt to catch it.
Unfortunately because of the surrounding foliage and my general excitement, I got nothing in the way of photographs  . But it was fun to watch  .
A few minutes later, we went to find the female. She was in the shade, exhausted and still breathing hard (pic #4). She had failed to make a kill, and was waiting and watching, making a sort of mewing sound- obviously calling her babies to her. We waited a few more minutes before leaving.
No doubt they later got together, but it wasn't as easy to do as I had thought.
Not a Nat Geo moment- but few things are.
And at least the whole thing was real- and I saw it. That's always worth something .
|
