Baby Cheetah

I was woken this morning by my radio (by which everybody on the reserve communicates, as if with a walkie-talkie) at some point just after six. This is not the first time this has happened, and as usual my first thought was "Who on Earth is having a conversation at this time in the morning?". But when the words, "Dizzy has been found with cubs," registered in my sleepy brain, I was suddenly wide awake.

Dizzy is a lone female cheetah taking part in the rehabilitation program at Okonjima. I saw her within my first few days here, and put some good pictures of her in a post from my first week. She had been seen close to Bones, a male rehab cheetah who usually lives with his friends Coco and Spud, a couple of months earlier, and it seems like they must have mated.

One of the guides tracked for Dizzy on trail this morning, and found her off road in the south of the reserve. When he and the guests got closer, they saw Dizzy had three very young cubs with her.

I've spent most of my day watching Dizzy with her babies, or sitting near by to see if she moves around. The couple of photos I took aren't particularly good, because I couldn't get too close- and honestly, I really wanted to watch them with my own eyes rather than through a camera lens.

Mummy Dizzy watching me

They are incredibly cute and we all hope Dizzy will be a good mother to them.