MASAI MARA 1°25’40.3”N 35°10’25.4”E
Cheetahs on the other hand live a solitary life. The mother is alone, she does not have the support of relatives or the protection of males and that makes her life more complicated. When she needs to hunt, she must leave her cubs hidden by themselves and they are vulnerable to other animals. When enemies, like hyaenas or lions, approach a mother, then she will try to move her cubs out of the way or be forced to stand her ground. On her own, she could easily out-run them, the cheetah is the fastest known land mammal, but as a mother, her primary objective is always to protect her little ones. Sadly, The sad fact is that 90% of the cheetah cubs die in the first three months of life and 50% of those are lost to predators. In 2021, I decided to visit the Masai Mara and on my first day there I had the best gift that nature could give me, a mother with four cheetah cubs. I had never seen a cheetah cub until that moment. I fell in love with the continent and its animals on my first trip to Africa and the cheetah fascinated me the most. I couldn’t stop looking at those babies with their big curious eyes and punky manes. When we arrived, they were eating a freshly killed gazelle. After the feast, the cubs rolled and played around while their mother was resting in the shade of a tree. Two of the cubs came up to her looking for some love. She caressed and licked them. Is there anything more meaningful and heartwarming than a mother’s love? Documenting the wild, we often think of them as killers, wild animals, and hunters – but I have met mothers, children, and proud fathers, and I have seen kindness and love. I have seen that nature takes life to create a new one somewhere else. It’s like the Mara River, it can give life by nursing every animal and it can take life with it’s natural strength and power. We all are part of the circle of life.
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MOTHER VOLUME ONE
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