Cheetah vantage point, Serengeti National Park.

Continuing the story from my last post where a cheetah popped up from the long grass to observe wildebeest as they ran by….having lost interest in the passing herd, this cat decided to use a nearby ant hill as a vantage point. This is quite common behaviour for cheetahs who have excellent eyesight and can use a vantage point like this to survey their surroundings.

I recall seeing a British made documentary series “Big Cat Diary” a couple of years ago where several teams of film makers and presenters followed particular families of animals. One team followed a particular pride of lions, another followed a leopard and her cubs and another team followed a cheetah and her cubs. Great series, if you get the chance to watch it, do so. Got to hand it to the Brits, they do wildlife docos better than anyone. I recall one particular rather humorous sequence involving the cheetah. The presenter was seated in his land rover, which was fitted with an open sunroof, and was whispering to camera about a cheetah which was right next to the vehicle. The animal was so accustomed to seeing the vehicle that it didn’t regard it as anything other than part of the landscape to the point where it would happily jump up onto the bonnet, or indeed the roof of the car, to use it as a vantage point. On this occasion the cheetah was sitting on the roof directly over the head of the presenter, who couldn’t move for fear of startling the animal, when the cheetah decided it was time to relieve itself by urinating through the open sunroof showering the hapless presenter who could do nothing but grimace, the whole incident being captured on film. Talk about dedication, I’m happy my wildlife encounters weren’t quite that close!

I decided to try out the toned monochrome treatment with this shot and think it works OK. Enjoy KD.