Cheetahs On The Edge

Nov 30

Folks often ask me is what my most favorite animal in Africa to photograph. I must share with you that this is a difficult question to answer, as focusing on just one animal is just plan hard given all that we see while on safari. It usually comes down to a choice between the elephants and the cheetahs. Both can pose photographic challenges when trying to obtain ‘The Shot’. Both have a strong sense of family however, I think the cheetahs win out due to their speed and how hard they have to work to survive. A mother can have a litter of up to 6 cubs however, only three (or less) of the 6 will normally make it to maturity. There is something special about an animal that can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in less than 3 second and sustain a 75 mph burst for up to 1600 feet. Talk about Top (Gun) Cat. Sadly, wildlife experts estimate that less than 12,000 cheetahs remain in the wild today. Sit back and enjoy the video clip below as a film crew caught the cats in action. Using a special high speed camera (Phantom) capable of capturing images at 1200 frames per second, the National Geographic guys captured three of the cats at the Cincinnati Zoo over the course of 3 days.