Mother Cheetah in the Serengeti

This mother cheetah is doing a great job raising her three cubs in the Serengeti. I was fortunate enough to be there last month and we found these four on an early morning game drive. We returned to the same area later in the day to see whether she had been successful in hunting down some food for the family.

Cheetah are becoming comparatively rare now. When I lived in Kenya about 40 years ago, you could be reasonably confident of seeing them on any trip to the game reserve, and often in any open country. That has clearly changed and we saw more leopard on this trip than we saw cheetah, which really blew me away!

I have plenty more photos of this little family to share!

Cheetah watch approaching storm in the Serengeti

An afternoon storm approaches as these cheetah relax after feeding on a Thompson's gazelle. Mum is a fairly small cheetah doing a great job of feeding and raising three cubs on her own in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Whitefella Walkabout
Tanzania, East Africa

An impressive young lion

A good looking fellow in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. He sat atop this mound which gave him a view across the plains. A little way from him, in amongst the grass, was a single lioness, perhaps the beginnings of his own pride.

Magnificent now and will be very impressive once he is a little older.

He was trying to snooze, which is what they do most of the day, but we didn't disturb him for very long.

The smell of a still-smouldering campfire at dawn.

I love sitting in the hour before dawn, somewhere far off in the bush, around a still-smouldering campfire, sipping a mug of hot tea while I warm my hands and watch the sunrise.

Add a wide horizon, the sounds of the birds getting busy before the sun shows itself, and the promise of another day ... free to wander randomly across the landscape drinking it all in. So many things seems to make more sense out here and, whilst the rawness of this life seems confronting to some, the birds, the beasts and the little beasties, aka bugs, mostly excel at surviving. The supreme skills of the kingfishers, the power and team work of hyenas, and the lone female cheetah hunting for herself and three cubs.

These are things to contemplate around an old camp fire when life is getting busy for another day of doing whatever it is that you do best. And now it's time to go and see for myself.

Pretty Cheetah Family in the Serengeti.

A beautiful mother cheetah and three cubs in the northern Serengeti. We returned later that day to see what they were up to and found them about two kilometres away feeding on a Thompson's Gazelle … their favourite. I will post some of these photos soon! The mother is not very large and she is doing a fabulous job feeding and tending to three cubs!