Here are a dozen or so shots of the Ndutu cheetah mom with six cubs.

http://www.hiltonphotography.net/afr...02_tz/maxi.htm

I first heard about these cubs in a thread started by David G, who had some really nice photos taken in January, about a month before our trip. Andy Biggs also posted a link on David's thread to his excellent photos of these same cubs rough-housing a week or two after David was there, and star55 described her sightings of them on her trip which began a week after we left Ndutu (we left March 4), so these cheetahs are well-documented on Fodors.

Star mentions the cubs crawling under her jeep ... they didn't crawl under ours but did play under the only other jeep around during our best sighting, and I included a couple shots of this at the end of the page.

Enjoy!

Bill & Carolyn

Hi Bill and Carolyn,

Thanks once more! Brilliant as always .......

I certainly hope these amazing cats make it through into adulthood and hopefully the drivers and guides are a little more considerate with their approach towards the animals while on safari.

Rgds
Hari

Que bueno!!! Gracias

Davgai

Bill, beautiful! What a great start to my morning. Please, can I come on a photographic safari with you and Carolyn?!

thanks Bill & Carolyn
for the beauties!

aby

how lucky can a person be?
seeing on the same safari an Aardvark, a cheetah interaction with a honey Badger, 6 cubs... what else ???

They're so impossibly cute I almost can't stand it!

They're beautiful... nice text too. thanks for that.

bill, had a look at your site. i am impressed by the photos and also by the encounters you were blessed to experience!

oops forgot something....
when you watch these gracious cats in the wild thinking that NAMIBIA allows ANYBODY to shut them i could start crying............
only 8000 to 10000 left in the wild, therefore extremly narrow gen pool which causes vulnarability in view to deseases etc.. and these idiots in namibia simply allow hunters to shot them.

Bill_H and Carolyn:

Thank you sooooo much for your gift of these photos and the accompanying stories. We failed to spot a single cheetah during our entire March safari (saw loads of other great stuff, though); I've been a bit down about it. Your brilliant photos have made me wistful to return

Cheers!

-doo

Just lovely, even with the vehicle. Wow.

Like Hari, I hope they survive, but realize the odds are against 6 for 6.

I hope the survivors continue to populate the Serengeti with their species.

Great photos, Bill. Thanks for sharing your excellent photos and experiences.

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!

Bill and Carolyn,

The cheetah has always been my favorite African animal and your photos just solidify my feelings.

These are absolutely brilliant. I loved all the photos but my favorites are the six watching Maxi getting ready to hunt and the cub looking out from the wheel.

I appreciate your website text as it adds context to the photos. And I agree that Maxi is the perfect name for the Mum.

It was also wonderful to see the differences in appearance between the younger and older cub. Your comment about the younger ones resembling honey badgers was even more stunning since I had seen your earlier honey badger pictures and I see your point.

Thanks again for sharing with the rest of us.

Deb

Bill:
I loved the photos. Thanks so much.