Part 2: Following the cheetah

I'm out again nice and early this morning. I'm heading towards where I last saw the female cheetah in the forecast. She didn't catch anything yesterday afternoon. She's most likely going to be hunting again this morning. So, we'll see what happens. I've just found them again. They're actually not too far from where I last saw them yesterday. It got a bit windy yesterday afternoon, so I'm guessing they didn't move too much yesterday then. They're all still skinny, so clearly they didn't have any success. She's up on the high points already this morning and scanning, still looking for prey. I'm going to stick with her and see if her luck changes this morning. I spent quite a bit of time earlier scanning from the high ground, but didn't see anything from there. They got on the move. They've been moving for a little while. I just spotted a herd of springbok that are spread out across this grassy slope. There are some zebra in amongst the herd as well. She's slowly stalking up the slope. She's left the cubs at the bottom of the slope and she's stalking very carefully up it at the moment. She's closed the gap quite a bit, but she still needs to get a fair bit closer before she's in a good position. There's a springbok that's just come in right behind her. It must have seen her. She's gone behind the bush, but the springbok is actually looking back towards the rest of the herd. Can you believe it? They didn't see each other and they're just a little bit apart. Oh, there she goes, there she goes, there she goes. Oh, she's pretty much given up already. Yeah, she's given up. I think with the springbok moving around behind her and the rest of the herd watching, I think she had to go a little bit sooner than she would have liked and it just hasn't worked out. They all run to a safe distance and looking back. Brown had caught up with them now. She had a bit of a rest and then called the cubs. They've joined up again. Looks like they're actually going to continue on the move for now. They're heading back down the way she came from, actually. She's had a bit of a laugh there. There was a black-backed jackal who popped up unexpectedly, which was pretty nice to see, but the jackal didn't know that there were five cheetahs still at the bottom of the slope and all of a sudden figured that out and beat quite a hasty retreat in the direction that it came from. That is undoubtedly the last we'll see of said jackal. They've all settled down here now and the cubs are actually suckling for mum. I hope the camera picks it up. The cubs are actually purring while they're suckling. It's a little surprising to see that the cubs were still suckling. Usually by this age they would have stopped, but perhaps desperate times call for desperate measures. Thankfully for them, they've got something in their tummies. They've all settled down. The cubs are actually bullying each other a little bit here now. For the mum, she's obviously still very empty and her work is far from over. She's going to be on the move again a little bit later to keep hunting, no doubt. We'll leave them to it, but hopefully by the next time we see them they've all got nice full bellies again.