After a month of November where I’ve shown a number of photos about cheetahs, I just wanted to provide a link to the excellent article in Wikipedia about Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus).

A young male, in the end of the afternoon, just before going for a wildebeest dinner.

Cheetah - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Cheetah - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles	Cheetah - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus, Guépard, Guepardo), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

The Parc des Félins of Nesles (France) as received on the 30th of October, two male cheetahs arriving from the Al-Bustan Zoology Center of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates). The managers of the Parc des Félins hope that these new members of the feline community in Nesles, after their initial acclimatation to the environment of French Seine-et-Marne will allow to obtain births of young cheetahs which have been awaited eagerly for quite some time.

They are named Skop and Taï.

Skop

Taï

Source: Parc des Félins.

When you want to suicide, there are plenty of ways. Some are prone to fail, some are difficult, some are discreet, some are gory and unpleasant for everybody around. That’s the last option that a worker at the Singapore Zoo has chosen for a public suicide: He jumped into the white tiger enclosure after using a broom to excite them.

The two animals left him dead, bitten on the neck and with a fractured skull, when the zoo keepers arrived. You don’t mess with wild big cats, even in a zoo.

Source: Straits Times.

Florence is a friend who came to wildlife photography only relatively recently, but she’s progressing quite quickly. Sometimes, she is lucky enough to make an exceptional encounter. Today, she is showing us leopards found in the Okavango delta in Botswana, including a family feeding on a prey hauled up in a tree to protect it from the other predators.

Young leopards - Copyright (C) 2008 Florence Diguer

I invite you to visit her gallery.

This female cheetah has her five cubs following her through the grass savanah, while she goes hunting for them.

Cheetah female and cubs - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles	Cheetah female and cubs - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Cheetah cubs - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus, Guépard, Guepardo), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

Cheetah, stretching - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles	Cheetah - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus, Guépard, Guepardo), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

Cheetah - Copyright (C) 2008 Y.Roumazeilles	Cheetah - Copyright (C) 2008 Y.Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus, Guépard, Guepardo), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

Found in the North of Israel, here is a shaman buried 12,000 years ago, with some significant grave offerings:

• 50 tortoise shells
• A leopard pelvis
• A human foot

Right! The leopard does not seem in very good company, but it must have been quite a burial.

Source: Science Blog.

Super!

While in Kenya, I found a little cheetah family: A mother and her 5 cubs (only a few weeks old).

Cheetah and cubs - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Cheetah and cubs - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles	Cheetah and cubs - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus, Guépard, Guepardo), Masai Mara, Kenya, September 2008.

Unfortunately, from what I heard, three of the cubs have been killed by hyenas a few days after we left Kenya. Wonderful little furry animals are not only cute; They are a prey for larger less nice predators.

The other cubs will grow up to become very fast killers, too.