Day #2 – Serengeti Plains, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Another intense day out on the endless plains of the Southern Serengeti. The Cheetah family we followed yesterday entered the woodlands in the early morning. Out in the plains huge Wildebeests’ herds were marching towards the North, heading to where it rained most in the past few days. On the edge of the Acacia woodland a group of Wildebeests cows had gathered to give birth to their calves. We saw different females with newborn calves and one giving birth right before our eyes and cameras. She was shy so we couldn’t get very close to her, but it was fantastic to watch first the tiny legs appear, then the head and finally the whole Wildebeest as the mother laid on her side. This particular calf was extremely rapid in getting up and walking, even by Wildebeests’ standards. It was up and trotting wobbingly besides its mother in a couple of minutes. We returned to our Cheetah family inside the woodland. They were approaching a herd of Wildebeests cows and calves. They laid down unseen and waited. We waited with them, and finally, after a few hours, the Wildebeests made a move and the mother Cheetah exploded in a full speed chase after one of the calves. She easily caught up with it. The cubs joined her. Again, she didn’t kill her prey but let the cubs practice their hunting and suffocation techniques on the unlucky calf.