A mother's love

She nurtures, she protects, she feeds, and she teaches by example. The love a mother is seen with most species of animal life like we experience as homo sapiens.

Today, would be our last day on the Serengeti plains, bordering Ngorongoro and once again; we were not disappointed. Strangely enough, the cheetah is considered an endangered species and yet our morning drive treated us to more cheetah sightings, while the elusive leopard remains hidden to us in this area.

Our first sighting came quickly into our drive. She was ever watchful of her surroundings and we saw why. Closely on her heels were four very small cubs - likely around 2 months old. As she scanned the area around, she continued to flick the underside of her long tail so that the cubs could recognize the white tip at the end as a sign to follow her. And they did. If one lagged behind, she would let out a squeak and the cub would move along more quickly.

A small depression in the path had filled with water from a recent rain, and there, she stopped to drink, encouraging her cubs to do the same thing. We watched them get their needed fluids and noticed the strong interaction between the mother and the cubs - obviously a very good mother (and always on constant alert to predators).




Moving along further, we noticed two young gazelles off on ther own feeding. A cheetah off in the distance noticed the same thing. As we got closeran we noticed she had 3 cubs with her and our guide/driver suggested, this was likely the same cheetah that we had seen two days earlier with the kill and surrounding vultures.

She was on the prowl again. They can have more than one kill in a day, but often a hyena will come and force the cheetah away and the cheetah must find another opportunity to eat. They do not have to eat every day, but thankfully, they are great hunters and with the abundance of gazelles, there are more opportunities here.

We watched from a distance as she prompted her cubs to lay down in longer grass as she moved in closer. She crept closer and closer, but the the gazelles must have sensed something was amiss. One gazelle took off running in one direction, while the other remained on alert for a short while, until it also took off. She wasn't quite close enough to catch the gazelle and so she called her cubs to her. No kill this time, but intriquing to watch the process.

Still, we saw so many other animals today. We're loving this experience!

Later, we are heading off on a short walking safari.