Field Notes from an African Safari – Cheetah Spotting!
Africa was absolutely one of our favorite places! And we totally fell in love with the cheetahs ;-)
February 2nd, 5AM
Our morning safari game drive on Karongwe Reserve in South Africa. The sky is dark, but should be lightening up fast. Driving slowly out of the the compound, we rouse a sleeping giraffe. “Sorry, buddy, for the abrupt wake-op! Those tinker-toy legs take quite a bit to untangle,” I whisper.
We’re hunting nghala today – lions! And also the cheetah they call Nyletti, which means Star to the Shangaan people. If we’re really lucky we’ll catch a signal from the elusive leopard called Tilo. We’re using high-tech tracking – telemetry devices and good, old-fashioned effort.
Even at this early hour the excitement of what we might see today is all around us – and it’s not just a caffeine buzz from the high test coffee we’ve all just chugged before piling into the truck. Cameras? – check! Water bottles and a mid-morning snack? – check! Telemetry equipment and notebooks for recording data? These are even more important than the extra thermos of coffee we’ve stowed in our pack because these are for collecting information from wild animal observation. That’s the reason we’re here for 12 weeks with a Global Vision International expedition to study. The added bonus is getting within a few meters of a wild African lion or a mother cheetah with her fuzzy cubs.
Is that a spotted hyena coming in from a kill? Do those moving leaves hide a camouflaged leopard hiding high in the trees? Dawn breaks as an impala saunters across our path, followed in quick succession by his bounding, balletic heard. The day comes on fast and for a few moments the sky shares both the sun and moon to light our way through the bush. Soft shadows help hide the animals just waking and conceals the prey from watchful eyes.
By 6AM, we’ve tracked down our first animal, Nyletti, a collared female cheetah. Her collar emits a particular frequency that we pick up as a beep on our telemetry device. It looks a bit like a TV antennae held up over the head – the beeps continue as we wind down the frequency leading us directly to where the animal is hiding. There she is! Sitting directly in front of us with her romping cubs safely hidden under a nearby bush. But not for long. The little ones are in and out in a shot, chasing grasshoppers, tumbling, and play growling with each other.
After spending half an hour in the African morning watching the antics of the cubs and taking data, we’re free to take pictures and laugh a lot. Cute doesn’t begin to describe a fuzzy cheetah as he discovers the strange world around him.
The radio crackles. A lion has been spotted! We’re off for the next sighting and it’s not even 7AM!
Oh my goodness, the cute factor in this post is over 9000! The baby cheetah is so sweet. I would love to have a similar experience! Thanks for sharing.
We had such fun watching them grow up! Every day they learned something new and we got to be there and take pictures 🙂 Such cuties!
I know that feeling of seeing the animals in the wild. Awesome does not describe the feeling adequately. You were really lucky I imagine to see cheetah cubs so young. Beautiful photos. Thanks.
It was an incredible experience. I think spending 12 weeks in the bush spoiled us for regular safaris though. 🙂
I love how you described the giraffe’s legs as tinker toys- so true! Thanks for sharing this charming insight into your safari.
That poor giraffe! LOL! All he wanted to do was sleep and here we come bumbling along in our truck…:-)
Love your writing, I felt a little bit tense reading! Amazing close range photos too.
Thanks SO much! Some mornings it was a little tense, especially when a herd of enormous elephants decided to charge…YIKES! Those times made us very happy to be watching the antics of baby cheetahs.
She is so pretty! I’ve always preferred the leopard as my big cat of choice (and all time favorite animal), but this girl is gorgeous!
She is beautiful! And a great Mom to her little cubbies, too 🙂
Wow! What a fantastic experience. I would love to have a ‘safari’ experience with my children some day. Nice photos.
Thank you! It is a life-changing experience to be that close to the animals. Something I had only dreamed about or seen on television. Because we were there for 12 weeks, it was as though they were our family, too!
What a great experience! Great pictures too. I have not been to Africa yet but it is on my list.
You are so lucky! We spotted one cheetah during our African safari and he was passed out under the brush after having a feast on some animal (can’t remember what). The carcass was out in plain sight but he was in a food coma in the shade from what we could see.
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Africa was absolutely one of our favorite places! And we totally fell in love with the cheetahs 😉