Fast Cats

Hoopdriver

For the past eighteen months I have been working on a story for National Geographic on cheetahs - one of those long term projects that i lived with constantly, and which took me all over Africa and the Middle East and to Cincinnati, of all places, where I took part in a really cool photo shoot to capture what are the finest images ever taken of a cheetah running at full speed. This month, at long last, the story is out - to my joy and relief.

As the proud creator of this story I have written a post on the making of it, and the story behind the elaborate photo shoot in Cincinnati (arguably the costliest, most elaborate photo shoot in the magazine's history) and provided links to the story itself and video footage of the running chetahs on the National Geographic website.

You can see my On Assignment post here:

http://my-bicycle-and-i.co.uk/2012/fast-cats/

Kieran_Burns

I actually think I hate you. I really, really do. I'm not jealous at all, not in the slightest. It's just that I hate you.

Lots.


:P

asprilla

I'd love your job.

Shameless plug for my own lucky shot, taken in Botswana a few years ago. Not quite as quick, but quick enough...

Hoopdriver

Asprilla wrote:

I'd love your job.

Shameless plug for my own lucky shot, taken in Botswana a few years ago. Not quite as quick, but quick enough...

That's gorgeous!

Kieran_Burns

Another one to the hate list,.....

asprilla

Hoopdriver wrote:

That's gorgeous!

Thank you. I was phenomenally lucky. I was expecting lots of long distance shots so I had a 70-300 f4-5.6 on an Eos350D and then we got to within 3m of her and we were the only vehicle there.

When she got bored and walked off she walked straight past me. I had to sit on my hands so I didn't reach out and try to stroke her.

Hoopdriver

Asprilla wrote:

Hoopdriver wrote:

That's gorgeous!

Thank you. I was phenomenally lucky. I was expecting lots of long distance shots so I had a 70-300 f4-5.6 on an Eos350D and then we got to within 3m of her and we were the only vehicle there.

When she got bored and walked off she walked straight past me. I had to sit on my hands so I didn't reach out and try to stroke her.

I found the temptation not to reach out and touch similarly hard to resist when I had some close encounters on this assignment. They are such lovely cats

twist83

VERY jealous as well. Fantastic experience.

Although I get to do similar when I fly to Turkmenistan with work to sort through dusty boxes to re-import aircraft parts. Ohh wait no it isnt similar

Will read the blog post later

Stunning shot above. Cats are fantastic creatures both domestic and wild!

JamesB5446

I read yesterday that something like 10 of all Cheetahs in the Southern Serengeti came from one mum. What a slag.

Hoopdriver

JamesB5446 wrote:

I read yesterday that something like 10 of all Cheetahs in the Southern Serengeti came from one mum. What a slag.

Yup, that's right. About ten per cent. The name of the cheetah in question is Eleanor

mrc1

You could at least have got the cheetah in focus in the main shot on the National Geographic page ;-)

Very cool though. I used to love watching Big Cat Diary when I was a youngster so am very jealous!

JamesB5446

Hoopdriver wrote:

JamesB5446 wrote:

I read yesterday that something like 10% of all Cheetahs in the Southern Serengeti came from one mum. What a slag.

Yup, that's right. About ten per cent. The name of the cheetah in question is Eleanor

How many Cheetahs, roughly, would that be then. It's not as impressive if there is only a handful there.

Hoopdriver

JamesB5446 wrote:

Hoopdriver wrote:

JamesB5446 wrote:

I read yesterday that something like 10% of all Cheetahs in the Southern Serengeti came from one mum. What a slag.

Yup, that's right. About ten per cent. The name of the cheetah in question is Eleanor

How many Cheetahs, roughly, would that be then. It's not as impressive if there is only a handful there.

A couple of things - cheetahs are very thinly populated so you are never going to have a lot of them in any area. The study area in the southern Serengeti has about 70 cheetahs, but that number can fluctuate as they wander in and out of the area. Eleanor has successfully raised eleven cubs. What is impressive about this is that mortality rate on the grasslands can run as high as 95%, with the vast majority of cubs never even making it out of the den in which they were born. Most are killed by lions or hyenas. Many cheetah mothers never raise even a single cub to maturity. For one to raise eleven is exceptional. One of the points in my article is that a 38 year-long study in the Serengeti has revealed that cheetahs as a species rely very heavily on the breeding success of a few supremely talented mothers who are able not only to make kills every day to feed their brood, but keep them out of harm's way.

JamesB5446

Do the other Cheetahs help to feed the productive ones or is it every cat for herself?

wgwarburton

Hi,
I was hoping we'd be discussing something like this:



...maybe someday... *sigh*

Cheers,
W.

Hoopdriver

JamesB5446 wrote:

Do the other Cheetahs help to feed the productive ones or is it every cat for herself?

Cheetah females are solitary by nature. Males, often brothers, will form little groups of three or so called coalitions and will work together to coordinate a hunt. they are totally absentee fathers as regards the brood. They mate and leave. the female cheetah is the ultimate single mother.

What the successful females will do though, or have been known to do, (as if they didn't have enough on their plate) is foster the cubs of other less successful mothers, or cubs that have been orphaned. It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen.

Allez Mark

Asprilla wrote:

I'd love your job.

Shameless plug for my own lucky shot, taken in Botswana a few years ago. Not quite as quick, but quick enough...

I was lucky enough to spend a week in the Masai Mara on honeymoon a few years ago. Amazingly we saw two Cheetahs (Mother and Son). However, this photo looks like a Leopard. Still beautiful though.

Hoopdriver

Indeed, it is a leopard with those rosettes...

A beautiful photograph nonetheless.

The Rookie

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I actually think I hate you. I really, really do. I'm not jealous at all, not in the slightest. It's just that I hate you.

Lots.


:P

+1

Great write up as well!