Gang Of Five

It's not unusual to see cheetahs while on safari in the Masai Mara. You may see one hunting or sleeping alone, or sometimes with a partner or two. You'll often see a mother with her cubs. What you don't often see is five cheetahs hunting, eating, and living together. This past August we followed a group of five cheetahs for a couple of days as they did just that. Five males, three of them brothers, along with two "outsiders" teamed up to form their own coalition. (that is actually the name for a group of cheetahs like this) Our guides mentioned that they had been seeing the coalition before we arrived and that they knew the general area to look for them. It's hard to tell cheetahs apart if you're not spending a lot of time with them, but the leader of the pack had a tracking collar put on some time ago by conservationists, and he was easy to ID. Every time he started started getting restless, we knew something was eventually going to happen. Five cheetahs together means a lot of hunting to keep everyone fed, and we saw them hunt twice over two days, one successfully, one not. The second hunt was one of the more amazing afternoons I've had on safari - I will probably do a separate post on it - but it entailed hours of sleeping, a dust storm, followed by a rain storm, followed by hunting under a double rainbow. Yeah there are days like that. Here are a few images from those amazing days with the gang of five. (you can click on the photo to start & stop the slideshow)