Siddhartha Ganesh
Maliaka with her cubs
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Malaika and her 5 cubs head on.
She originally had 6 but a report came in suggesting a lioness had killed one of them on the 19th of July. The report also said she was lucky to still have her 5 other cubs alive.
She is a steller who is making the Cheetah population count. Malaika is the daughter of Kike, a cheetah who featured in BBC’s Big Cat Diaries. Like her mother she is famous for her car-jumping behaviour. She has passed this behaviour on to her son from her previous litter, Bawa who left her early this year.
On that day, the weather was terrible with light drizzles extending to the whole day thereby reducing the light considerably. It was a task to manage this picture since the winds were moving the bush erratically making my focus hunt back and forth, unable to lock on to a satisfying subject. I had to switch to manual focus to achieve some desired results. I do have a lot of other better pictures but this is one of the few where I go all of them in one frame. Unfortunately none of the cubs looked to my side together at any point of time (quiet understandable since they are cubs and always on the move). Her moments have been interrupted because of the change in temperature, weather and conditions (read that as other predators lurking). She still does not have a dedicated spot for her cubs to grow a healthy life.
I really do hope all of them survive the coming months especially during the rains and she has a mighty task ahead of her for the next year and a half.
She made my Masai Mara trip. I spent close to 7 hours with the family.
Maliaka with her cubs
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Malaika and her 5 cubs head on.
She originally had 6 but a report came in suggesting a lioness had killed one of them on the 19th of July. The report also said she was lucky to still have her 5 other cubs alive.
She is a steller who is making the Cheetah population count. Malaika is the daughter of Kike, a cheetah who featured in BBC’s Big Cat Diaries. Like her mother she is famous for her car-jumping behaviour. She has passed this behaviour on to her son from her previous litter, Bawa who left her early this year.
On that day, the weather was terrible with light drizzles extending to the whole day thereby reducing the light considerably. It was a task to manage this picture since the winds were moving the bush erratically making my focus hunt back and forth, unable to lock on to a satisfying subject. I had to switch to manual focus to achieve some desired results. I do have a lot of other better pictures but this is one of the few where I go all of them in one frame. Unfortunately none of the cubs looked to my side together at any point of time (quiet understandable since they are cubs and always on the move). Her moments have been interrupted because of the change in temperature, weather and conditions (read that as other predators lurking). She still does not have a dedicated spot for her cubs to grow a healthy life.
I really do hope all of them survive the coming months especially during the rains and she has a mighty task ahead of her for the next year and a half.
She made my Masai Mara trip. I spent close to 7 hours with the family.