A close encounter with a cheetah cub

Cheetah sightings are always a treat, wherever you are. But not in our wildest dreams had we thought they’d be as good as they are in a private reserve in Zululand where we were filming recently. We had been filming this mother and her three cubs for days. They whole family was extremely relaxed around our vehicle and, just so long as we didn’t make any sudden movements, we were spoilt with some amazing moments with them. The first time we saw them was when she darted across in front of us and killed a baby nyala, and then called the cubs for dinner.

But the most special moment was when we were filming them in perfect light one morning, as they posed on top of a small termite mound. As they were so relaxed, we had the door ajar so as to get low to the ground shots. The cubs were playing and the mother was watching around for both predators and prey. All was perfect and we were getting beautiful footage, when suddenly curiosity got the better of one of the cubs.