More or less collaborative felines
Samburu National Reserve – Kenya.
A female cheetah followed by its 4 offspring goes hunting. She cautiously approaches a group of Grant gazelles, followed remotely by her young.
Suddenly, it's the explosion... and I only have the departure of the mother behind bushes. Nevertheless, I manage to follow one of the young, less fast. The gazelles get out of it without damage and we find the mother recovering from her run, panting to oxygenate and evacuate the heat produced by the muscle effort.
The young regroup and the mother joins them. They are moving away, may be next time ? This female, which has managed to raise 4 young so far, must be a good hunter.
Samburu National Reserve – Kenya.
While we were watching two lions sheltering from the heat under bushes, a lioness appears and we manage to follow her to her shelter.
There, totally surprised, we see her going out with a lion cub barely ten days old that she’s trying to move away from the males present nearby. I completely miss her exit from the bushes, but we see her moving away, firming her grip delicately and watching something to her right.
The other two vehicles nearby try to follow her while we stay hoping that she could come back if she gave birth to a second lion cub... which is confirmed less than 10 minutes later. The lioness nearly brushed against our 4x4, not any where bothered by our presence, and leaves quietly with her second offspring.
Samburu National Reserve – Kenya.
The first part shows the leopard on a rock. He is observed from a distance for more than twenty minutes, obviously without disturbing him in the least. At 5:30 p.m., it is so dark that even by pushing the sensitivity of the cameras to more than ISO 1600, there is no way to get sharp shots. The camera, on the other hand, still gives quite exploitable images.
The second part takes place shortly before 5:30 p.m., at sunset. This time, the path probably passes too close to him and he moves away after ten minutes. However, he takes his time before disappearing into a hollow of ground. It's too dark to follow him and it's time to go back to the camp, but what a wonderful way to end the day.
Kenya - Maasai Mara, mid-October.
The sky is loaded with clouds and it rains at times. A lioness leaves her companion and goes down a valley under the gaze of another lioness lying on top of a hill.
She joins a group of 7 lionesses and lions 3 km from her starting point. The group includes several young people, including at least 3 males, one of them holding a Covid mask in his jaws. Let's hope it's not a remnant of an imprudent tourist...
The group is slowly returning to the lioness's starting point, taking breaks. We are almost alone around 2 p.m. when we start observing them. Silence, only punctuated by the breath of the wind, is magical.
Gradually, other vehicles join us in the total indifference of the lions. We leave them around 3:30 p.m., after more than an hour with them.
Kenya – Mara North Conservancy.
It's more than 6 p.m. and it's starting to get very dark. A group of lionesses is interested in a zebra and tries an approach... but without much conviction. The zebra does not seem to fully understand what is happening, but ends up moving away with a small trot.
The telephoto lens quite compresses the image, but we see that a road is not very far away and that a group of wildebeest and gazelles are looming in the distance. A man on a motorcycle stops to observe the scene, apparently hardly worried about this group of 5 lions.
Finally the lionesses give up and the whole group meets when the night finally falls. The light falls suddenly, as always near the equator.
A female Cheetah and her three cubs in the Samburu National Reserve.
A lion wakes up from its nap and begins to look for... another place to resume its nap.
Solio Game Reserve.
Two lionesses wake up at the end of the day and walk away, hiding behind the bushes, probably to go hunting.
Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
Do not miss, at the 4th minute, the person on the 4×4 who does not see the lionesses passing.
On a windy evening, a leopard observes us from the top of a small hill.
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