Born to run

We started off wanting to follow up on a male cheetah that had been seen on morning drive and were very excited when we saw the silhouette of one on a nearby rise. However as we approached we soon saw that it was in fact a female cheetah and her cub that had been lying in the grass. Seeing as how our patience had paid off the day before we settled in for a long wait. After about half an hour the cheetah spotted a group of impala in the distance and started to move in their direction. We were all very surprised to see a pride of lions that had been resting in the shade of a nearby tree just out of sight. As the two cheetah got nearer the adult lioness went into a low crouch and started stalking towards the appraoching cheetah. In the last second the cheetah spotted the larger cats and were off across the top of the ridge with the lions hot in pursuit. It seemed that the lioness was gaining on the cheetah cub which had split from its mother when the mother bravely ran towards the lioness seeking to draw its attention in a different direction. The lioness however wasn't fooled and continued chasing the cub, but the brief distraction gave the cub the lead it needed and after only a short time was well away from the lioness. The lions lost sight of the cheetah in some low scrub and lazily returned to their spot in the shade. We left shortly afterwards very releived to see the mother cheetah leading her cub far away across the plains.

Posted: South Africa Wildlife by CC Africa, Date: 20 December 2009