Day 7: Okonjima Cheetahs

One of the best tips for snapping animals in this typical pose is to get down low, preferably lie on the ground which I did here. And promptly got told off. Lying flat on the ground, apparently, is tantamount to inviting the cheetah over for a look. We felt quite safe - after all there were eight of us and in general cheetah are not aggressive towards humans, unless their young are threatened.

Another great view of a male cheetah with a nice, shallow depth of field stretching off into the background. Pic by Natalie.

Located 160kms north of Windhoek , Namibia, the Africat Foundation at Okonjima is a 200 square kilometre reserve dedicated to the study, preservation and rehabilitation of all sorts of wild life, principally leopard and cheetah. You stay there much as if it were a regular game park – but you are literally surrounded with cheetahs and leopard in the reserve bounding the lodges.

Africat began as a refuge for leopard and cheetahs that were otherwise in danger of being killed by farmers -there's no fencing in Namibia so these predators can roam where they please. Over the years the foundation has gained a reputation for working with farmers - which is in part why the reserve has rehabilitated and released several hundred cheetahs over the years. Today you can go tracking - some of the leopard, cheetah and spotted hyena carry radio transmitters - in the massive reserve (an amalgamation of four farms bought over the last 20 or so years). Some track in vehicles while others walk you in once you are reasonably near to the animals. Leopard are definitely the hardest to find and photograph because they lie up in dense undergrowth - they are very shy animals. Cheetah seem to be a little easier - we found a female and two males after bush walking for 20 minutes. The animals moved onto one of the game tracks and flopped into the dust. We could get as close as three metres so got amazing shots.
 

This male is just having a scratch in the dirt which made for a good sequence of shots.
(Canon EF100-400mm, f5.6 at 1/1250s).
Pic by Natalie.

This male is just having a scratch in the dirt which made for a good sequence of shots.
(Canon EF100-400mm, f5.6 at 1/1250s).
Pic by Natalie.

A lucky shot - many of Africat's cheetah are collared. Purely by chance I managed to get one frame with the cheetah's tail obscuring its radio collar...

A female cleaning the male's face - for such big, powerful creatures, it was terrific to see them behaving just like a domestic tabby cat.
Pic by Natalie.

A typical cheetah pose, on the alert for danger or prey. Small wonder most of the shots we see of cheetah show them lying in roadways. In the bush they blend into the tall grasses and scrub almost instantly.

Delicious! Pic by Natalie.

Another classic cheetah pose, moving purposefully though tall grasses.
In this case to get away from eight keen photographers!