Day #1 – Serengeti Plains, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

After watching the sun rise behind Lake Ndutu, with a good number of Lesser and Greater Flamingos feeding in the shallow waters, we had an extremely rare encounter with a couple of Honey Badgers. Extremely shy and aggressive at the same time, if we got too close. We tried to approach them cautiously to take some images without much success, we only managed to snap a few images before they retreated to a hole. The Southern Serengeti plains are a heaven for Cheetahs, and in the mid morning we found our first family, a female with two cubs, about 8 months old. She tried to hunt a couple of times with no success. We left them resting in the shade. In afternoon we caught up entirely on our own with another family nearby, this time with four cubs about one year old. They were finishing to feed on a small Gazelle fawn. Soon after, under dark clouds, the mother found another fawn laying in the grass. She chased it and as she caught it, the cubs took over. They started playing with it, chasing it and tripping it repeatedly. The fawn had a broken leg but nonetheless it’s survival instinct got it up and running again. It was a harsh scene to watch, but it is all part of nature’s biggest scheme. The Cheetahs have to learn to hunt if they have to survive on their own without their mother. When they finished eating, the other family was nearby, also very hungry: the mother stalked a Gazelle with no success. As evening approached, the mother with the four cubs finished eating the fawn but she was still hungry, she stalked a male Gazelle but a wrong movement by one of the cubs gave her away. Overall, an extraordinary first day, in Cheetah heaven.