UNEXPECTED LUNCH MATES

It was a very nice and beautiful full day game drive; our goal was to see the big bunch of great Migration. We had to drive from Ndutu to Southern part of the Serengeti because at that time in the central Ndutu there was no even a single Wildebeest as it was much raining in the Southern Serengeti. We found the migration and we observed for three hours, they were playing around and some of them were feeding. Then we were satisfied with them and decided to find a beautiful spot with the fantastic view and we chosen the canopy of Matiti Hill which is in the middle of the Southern plain of Serengeti. On our way to the Matiti Hill unexpectedly we spotted a female Cheetah with 3 cubs of about a year old were sitting below the tree. Mother was absolutely focusing in a far distance of about 400 meters away. We realized that she wanted to hunt but the pray was far. We broke down our plan of going to have lunch in top of the Matiti Hill instead we drove back a little far from the Cheetahs and stopped for lunch. Our thought was if we could go to Matiti Hill we could miss to witness the kill, after having lunch we went to find them and were about 100 meters from the pray, we spent 1 more hour and the mother was getting closer and closer. When left about 20 meters interval she accelerated to the gazelle and put it down surprisingly, she took the kill to the cubs and start feeding whilst mother was taking a breath. We tried to take some photos while chasing but we couldn’t because of dust from chasing. It seems like as we were thinking where to have our lunch and the Nature was thinking what could provide for the Cheetah and cubs. By Paul Panga.

Posted: Serengeti Under Canvas by Serengeti Under Canvas Camp 2, Date: 17 April 2008