It was late on a winter afternoon in August at one of the remaining pools of water in the Majale river in Mashatu Nature Reserve, the sun was low and shining fully onto the section of the river we were overlooking, when a troop of baboons came down to drink.

“Animals should not require our permission to live on earth. Animals were given the right to be here long before we arrived.”

~Anthony Douglas Williams

The boss was the first to arrive, a large dominant male baboon, presumably the troop leader. He walked with confidence and purpose.

Before getting to the pool he stopped sat down and just looked around, probably just assessing the lie of the land to make sure there were no potential threats to his troop.

“Much of human behavior can be explained by watching the wild beasts around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and listen.”
~ Suzy Kassem

This young male stopped in his walk to the pool and just stared at us. His mannerisms were so human-like, I could not help but smile.

The baboons were not the only ones keen to have a drink in the late afternoon. A small herd of impala also came down to sate their thirst. Baboon and impala will often be seen together as they work symbiotically and provide more eyes and ears to watch and listen for danger.

“Symbiosis is a much higher reflection of intelligent life.”
~Frederick Lenz

Three young baboons came down to drink. I am sure the water was did not taste clean and fresh, but there was no alternative. You can see they were looking over the water while drinking, ever alert.

This young male baboon was bathed in the warm afternoon sunlight.

This young lady was preoccupied with a little thigh  grooming.

“Well, best to remain vigilant. It’s when everything is calm that you need to be most alert.”
~ Brandon Sanderson

It was so peaceful and warm in the late afternoon sun that this male started to doze off while watching us. Obviously, the sun made more of an impression than we did, happily.

Mother and baby on the rocks above the pool. The sun has to be reasonably low in the late afternoon to get the baboons eyes fully illuminated because of their substantial forehead and eye brow.

These youngsters hang onto their mother’s hair which I am sure must hurt the mother.

“Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do.”

~Unknown

This young female baboon was taking in the whole scene with serene acceptance.

I just loved the pose. She could have been on the beach in Saint Tropez with the camera crew all around her.

Unfazed and unperturbed, just soaking up the warm afternoon sun.

One of the youngsters must have done something wrong because it was about to be chastised.

Just like a human youngster, the young baboon screamed and shouted when being chased by a parent or adult.

“Baboons are incredibly social beings, and just like human families, they comfort and support each other, and squabble and fight!”

~Baboon Matters

This youngster was looking for some comfort and protection from the adult. I am not sure if the adult was the youngster’s parent because there was already a baby clinging to the adult’s belly.

The next day we found two families of baboon sitting on the ground warming up in the early winter morning sun. The adults were grooming each other while the youngsters played on the branches around them.

These young baboons are so strong, nimble and flexible. It is great fun to watch their antics.

Baboons provide endless entertainment and photographic opportunities for wildlife photographers when on a game drive. If you are camping they can be very destructive. The big males can be aggressive and should be treated with great respect. The adult male baboons are often twice the size of the female and develop huge canines which they display as a threat when needed.

“A baboon troop is a complex and fascinating hierarchy, where males are dominant but their ranking is tenuous and changes often, while females inherit their social status from their mothers.”

~Baboon Matters

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

Winter is a time when predators prevail in Mashatu. This is a wild place in the south-east of Botswana, where game, notably the elephants and the lions, are free to move back and forth between Botswana and Zimbabwe. During our recent trip to Mashatu in mid-August, we were fortunate enough to see the lion on a number of occasions and the resident male lion in particular.

” The dust, the wafting fragrance of wild sage, the warm winter sun, the tingle of anticipation and that pungent smell of death are intoxicating as you approach the lion kill. The anticipation turns into awe when you finally see the huge black-maned lion at his dinner table.”

~Mike Haworth

This large male lion was lying in a grove of wild sage. It has a unique ‘herb” fragrance and you either like or you don’t. Dereck Joubert said in one of his wildlife films that when he and Beverly were flying high over the Botswana bush in their light aircraft that he could smell the wild sage and he knew he was going home. I feel the same sense of familiarity when I the smell the wild sage.

“Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. But how do you begin to describe its magic to someone who has never felt it? How can you explain the fascination of this vast, dusty continent, whose oldest roads are elephant paths?”

~Brian Jackman

This male lion was lying among the wild sage. Presumably the females had killed the eland which had been substantially eaten by the time we arrived. .

 

Despite being full, the male lion lay next to the eland carcass. It was not especially warm so was not too smelly

While lying in the sage bushes he could not see anything but judging from the way he turned his head and refocused he was sensing all the movement around him.

 

This is a big strong dominant male who has ruled this area for the last few years.  He is a lone male, so has no coalition partners to rely on if there was an invasion from a new coalition seeking  new territory.

“Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”

~Maya Angelou

You are always told to sit quietly in the vehicle when near a predator and not to stand up or break the outline of the vehicle in any way.  The lion can definitely sense you are in the vehicle but somehow does not associate you as being separate to the vehicle. As a wildlife photographer somehow I am not so sure that the lions do necessarily see you as part of the vehicle. This male lion was directly focused on the “big eye” looking at him. The big eye being my 600mm lens. His small pupils showed that it was bright sunlight.

After watching the “big eye” for a while he lost interest and started to look around again, but every now and then he would stare deeply into my lens. A look that sent chills down my spine.

“We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.”

~Unknown

One of the reasons this male was looking around is that he had heard a family group of elephants approaching through the sage brush. They are not exactly quiet or fast. Interestingly the elephant did not pick up on the lion until they were quite close and then must have smelt them. The elephants did not have any youngsters in the herd so did not take too much notice of the lions.

The male lion decided to move around the other side of his meal to keep an eye on the approaching elephant.

“If your mind is expansive and unfettered, you will find yourself in a more accommodating world, a place that’s endlessly interesting and alive. That quality isn’t inherent in the place but in your state of mind.” 
~ Pema Chödrön,

The two lionesses were out of the line of approach of the elephants so took no heed of them. The outstretched paw said it all.

At one point one of the lionesses looked up but only because we started our vehicle.

“Fill your life with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell not stuff to show.”

~Unknown

Later that day, probably half a kilometre to the north of the eland kill, we found the dominant male lion and his lioness down at the water in the Majale river.

He seemed very relaxed just keeping an eye on us. When a large male lion looks at you like this, it does make you wonder what he is thinking.

He seemed to be the watchman while his lioness was having her drink. The pair seemed to be on their own so they could have been a mating couple.

“I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was unexplored.”

~ David Attenborough

In the last light, I liked the various shades of bond in his mane.

The next day we found four young male lions on their own. I am not sure whether they had already been kicked out of the pride or whether the pride had just splintered for the time being.  Either way they were still in the dominant male’s turf which would be a problem in time. 

When you see a large male lion or large lioness in the wild it puts life into perspective. These are huge and immensely strong predators where a human would not be the slightest match. All of a sudden it dawns on you that you are not top of the food chain.

“And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.”

~Pico Lyer

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

This is a fourth post from our recent trip to Mashatu Nature Reserve in south-eastern Botswana in mid-August 2017. In winter in Mashatu the grass dries and thins out. This forces grazers to become browsers but nature is bountiful. As one source of food disappears another more localised source appears.

” The earth is large enough for all to share, but mankind’s heart is not large enough to care.”

~Anthony Douglas Williams

An adult Kudu bull with the requisite two and a half twists in his horns. Kudus are browsers so seem to cope quite well in winter when the vegetation thins out.

This was a small group of Kudu bulls, the younger ones were a little more jittery and did not have the confidence of the older bulls. Not surprising as there are many predators in Mashatu.

Down at one of the few remaining pools of water in the Majale river. These pools are a magnet for thirsty animals and birds during winter. In summer there is more available water so the animals and birds spread out. Three young impala boys and two girls.

“What is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of a whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pool at night?”

~Chief Seattle

You will not often see an impala jump into the water. They know there are things which lurk below the surface and those things usually want to eat them.

“It is only when you come across animal behaviour that you have never seen or heard before that you realise that you are the one that still has much to learn. Beneath the visual surface lies a much more complex and fascinating web of knowledge which is slowly revealed to us if we take the time to look and think.”

~Mike Haworth

One of the more unusual sightings on this trip was this  young bull giraffe carefully smelling the bones of a fallen giraffe. He was smelling the metacarpal or metatarsal, third phalange and  hoof of one leg. I have seen a herd of elephants show great respect for the bones of one of their own, which makes us sense that elephants as sentient beings.

I have not heard of giraffe displaying the same care and reverence for a fallen comrade.  This giraffe spent some time smelling and even licking the bones. This was something out of the ordinary, as he was clearly assessing what had happened and for the first time I became aware of the sentience of this animal. One more element of the mystery of nature was unveiled and more respect given.

On of the smallest antelope in Mashatu, the Steenbok can usually be found in pairs. This was a male as distinguished by his horns. Those big ears help him to pick up the slightest sound around him, a skill he needs in Mashatu.

The female Steenbok has no horns but is a beautiful, small, dainty antelope which eats grass, berries and browses on the leaves of select bushes.

We found this lone male Klipspringer smelling  what must have been an olfactory signpost. His was making his way along the edge of the dry Majale river bed. There is a family group that lives in this area but I did not see the female or any of the offspring. Not surprising as they are well camouflaged, especially among the rocks and in the shade.

I have been going to Mashatu for the last six years and this was only the second time I have seen a wild pig and the first time out in the open.  It was early in the morning and we had just crossed the Majale river and had driven over to see what all the baboon commotion was about around a large Mashatu tree. The baboons must have slept in the tree the night before. There were a few youngsters being disciplined and making an almighty racket as a consequence. Below all the commotion was this wild pig. It is very unusual to see one out in the open like this in Mashatu.

This wild pig was nibbling at the Mashatu tree berries which the baboons had dislodged and had fallen to the ground. The wild pig was feasting on the berries and ignored us for a few minutes, then in usual form decided to melt away into the background.

“A wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

~Epictetus

There are surprises in the bush like the wild pig sighting and there are times when  a familiar animal in an unusual setting makes wonderful photography. This kudu bull was walking on the sand in a familiar section of the Majale river, which was now dry. We had seen bull elephants swimming in this section a few months before. The backlighting and dust just added that little something extra to the image.

In the low afternoon sun, the Kudu bull’s neck mane was highlighted as were his horns. The contrast of light and dark added a little shine to this image for me.

The Kudu bull then walked up onto the back of the dry river bed and I loved the scene with the bull looking off into the distance with highlighted leaves casting a real bush atmostphere.

” Seeing goes beyond looking, it is recognising the state of another being, grasping a deeper understanding of the context.”

~ Mike Haworth

This eland bull seemed to be very lack lustre and we assumed it was not well. Normally eland will run away, as they are very skittish. This bull ambled away and did not look to be all there.

These are huge antelope. He was on his own and something was not right. We did not see him again in the following days but thankfully did not see his carcass either.

“Life does calm down a little in winter, well just a little. Winter in southern Africa is a riot of browns, yellow, oranges and beiges, and complemented  with polarised blue skies. Stop for a minute and don’t look at things but sense the  colours, shapes and textures. It will bring a smile to your face!”

~Mike Haworth

Winter is a time of browns, oranges and beiges in Mashatu. Every now and then you might see black and white stripes or is that white and black stripes.

There are many small family groups of  Zebra in Mashatu so do not expect to see the big herds you will see in the Zebra migration in northern Botswana.

As photographers we wait for zebras bolting in the dust. Ideally not away away from us.

We are quick to seek the predators in our wildlife mix. You will be surprised to see great diversity, surprising adaption, strength, speed and beauty in the grazers and browsers in Africa.

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. there is no end to the adventures we can have if we only seek them with our eyes open.”

~Jawaharial Nehru

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at is inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

This is the third post from our recent trip to Mashatu in mid-August. It was winter, but surprisingly the weather was mild. We were expecting warm mid-days and cold evenings, not so, even the evenings were relatively warm.

“You can’t get mad at weather because weather’s not about you. Apply that lesson to most other aspects of life.”
~ Doug Coupland

Winter is a time when all the migrants fly north for warmer climes with the promise of more food, especially insect life. Despite the winter exodus, we are fortunate enough to have a wonderful variety of resident feathers.

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
~Emily Dickinson

In front of our camp was a small waterhole which proved to be an ideal winter watering spot for our avian friends. It was in shade for most of the day but between 13h30 and 15h00 the angle of the sun’s rays was just right to light up the pond. The images in this post are a selection of birds which we saw at the small waterhole and on our game drives. It is easy to see which were which.

Male Golden Breasted Bunting.

The adult male has a striking head pattern with a white crown, black lateral crown stripes, white supercilium and black-bordered white ear coverts. The supercilium is a plumage feature,  a stripe which runs from the base of the bird’s beak above its eye, finishing towards the rear of the bird’s head – like an eyebrow.

“Let me be as a feather. Strong with purpose.

Yet light at heart, able to bend.

And tho I might become frayed,

Able to pull myself together again.”

~Anita Sams

A male Namaqua Sandgrouse. The male has an orangish buff head, throat and chest delineated by a conspicuous narrow band of white and dark brown. The male and female  carry water  back to their chicks in their breast feathers .

A female Namaqua Sandgrouse is more cryptically coloured than the male. These sandgrouse live in dry sandy environments and are known to travel great distances for water.

Adult Red-billed Oxpecker waiting for a host. It seemed to have abandoned the impala for a drink but by the time it had finished the impala had moved off.

“May your spirit soar through the vast cathedral of your being,

May your mind whirl youthful cartwheels of creativity,

May your heart sing sweet lullabies of timelessness.”

~Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A  Tawny Eagle soaring between thermals.

Tawny Eagle in flight. Tawnys, Martial Eagles and African Hawk Eagles are residents in Mashatu. I have never seen a Bateleur Eagle soaring over Mashatu.

Black Stork maneuvering to avoid the Hammerkop stealing its catch. Nature always surprises. There was a small pool of water remaining in the Matabole river close to the weir. Remarkably, this Black stork caught about seven decent size fish in this pool. This stork did not try to kill the fish but just maneuvered them so they could be swallowed head first.

This Black Stork was not going to allow anyone to steal its catch.

The Black Stork was considerably more successful as a fisherman than the pair of Hammerkops. Its fishing technique was very much like a Yellow-billed Stork, swishing its beak back and forth as it walked and snapping shut as it felt its prey touch its beak. 

“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves.”
~Rachel Carson

A young male Natal Spurfowl is similarly coloured to the female. 

The male spurfowl has much bigger spurs on the back of its legs. You can tell how old the male is by the degree to which his spurs have been worn down through fighting.

A male Natal Spurfowl has exquisite patterning on its breast and belly feathers.

A Burchell’s Coucal skulking in between thickets trying to keep up with the foraging elephants. This Coucal was feeding on the insects disturbed by the browsing elephants.

A Blue Waxbill.

Waxbills are an exceptionally colourful family of seed-eaters. These Blue Waxbills were no exception with their powder blue coloured breast and belly feathers.

A Southern Grey-headed Sparrow with its characteristic grey head and white bar on its shoulder

The sexes of the Grey-headed Sparrow are alike. The horn coloured beak is the non-breeding colour.

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
~Rachel Carson

A adult male Green Winged Pytillia.

The Green winged Pytillia was previously called a Melba Finch of obvious reasons.

A female Green-winged Pytillia without the red forehead and throat and yellow breast of the male.

An adult Arrow-marked Babbler.

One of a small flock of adult Arrow-marked Babblers which noisily visited the small waterhole in front of the camp.

A male Red-headed Weaver taking on his breeding colours.

A female Red-headed Weaver with her reddish beak.

A silhouette of guineafowl walking down the river bank to the remaining pools of water.

Crimson-breasted Shrike.

This stunning coloured shrike is usually found in the acacia thorn veld.

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, “What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”
~Rachel Carson

Black-headed Oriole being buzzed by bees.

You will usually hear this bird before you see it.

Once in the sunlight, the vibrant yellow of the Black headed Oriole becomes a focal point.

A male Red-crested Korhaan judging from the white patch on the side of the breast.

The red crest is only displayed in courting.

A male Cinnamon -breasted Bunting

A female Cinnamon-breasted Bunting. The male and female look similar but the female has the thinner and less defined black facial stripes. 

A male Cinnamon-breasted Bunting fluffed up in the wind. This was a male, identified by his thick black facial stripes.

A Go-away Bird or Grey Lourie

A Grey Lourie is not called a Turaco because its feet cannot reach its mouth, like a Turaco.

“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry,
and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry
are equal in value no matter what their colour.“
~Maya Angelou

A lone Southern Black Tit having a quiet drink.

A male Greater Honeyguide.

This bird is brood parasite laying its eggs in a the nest of woodpeckers, barbets, kingfishers, bee-eaters, woodhoopoes and starlings.

Part of a flock of six White Helmeted Shrikes.

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
~Rachel Carson

White-fronted Bee-eaters starting to nest.

Colony living – not always easy to get along with your neighbours!.

A pied Babbler in the early morning light.

A Black Stork in the sunlight.

The Black Stork is a migrant but a few members of the flock obviously never got the departure call but seemed to be doing just fine.

“Today is your day to dance lightly with life,

sing wild songs of adventure,

soar your spirit,

unfurl your joy.”

~Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

This is my second post from our trip to Mashatu in mid-August, where the cheetah seem to be thriving. There are now two cheetah females each with three cubs and a coalition of three adult males. This is no mean achievement in an environment where there is  powerful competition from lions, hyaenas  and leopards.

Mashatu has numerous hills which the cheetahs use to look down on the plains for opportunities and threats. These speedsters operate mainly in the day when larger predators such as lions and hyaenas are resting.

From the lookout under a Shepherd’s tree, three sub-adult cubs followed their mother towards a croton grove where the cheetah mum must have seen potential prey. The cubs followed from a distance and one cub paused, while following its mother, just to see what we were doing.

~ Aristophanes

This cheetah family emerged from a croton grove and were smelling scats on the way out. The smells must have given them important information as this individual lingered sometime decoding the aromatic data.

These lightweight predators are furtive in their movement when they are uncertain. They are always looking around them to check that no threat will catch them unawares.

The female and her cubs were very wary as they backed away from the croton grove. Something triggered their caution. We could not see what it was. Perhaps the cheetah mother caught sight of a leopard or lion and backed out.

Cheetahs continually look behind themselves to make sure nothing is sneaking up behind them. They have the speed out outrun any threat if they just get enough warning of imminent danger.

In or out of the sun, a cheetah’s speed starts with aerodynamics. Its slender body, small head, flattened rib cage and long, thin legs minimise air resistance. Its lightweight frame (typically only weighs about 125 pounds or 57 kg), gives it a high power to weight ratio.

This young Cheetah was relaxing in the shade. The colour of the light cast on these cheetahs depended on the direction of the sun when in shade.

A mother and one of her sub-adult cubs lying in the shade facing different directions for security reasons. The youngster was not bored just tired. 

A cheetah mother with two of her three youngsters. The third was further ahead, out of the frame. It is no mean feat to raise three young cheetahs in this tough predator-filled environment. By 18 months of age, the mother leaves the cubs. Then, they usually a form  sibling group, staying together for another six months. At about two years, the female siblings leave the group and the young males remain together for life.

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

~  John Muir

The next image shows behaviour I have never seen before and would have never believed if I had not seen it for myself. A flock of guineafowl followed these cheetah making an almighty racket. They actually pursued them, making it clear to every living being around that there were predators in front of them.

The guineafowl must have followed this cheetah family for nearly half a kilometre before abandoning their mobbing. I have never seen guineafowl do this before. The more I get to see guineafowl the more complex I find their behaviour. It is clear that predators do not get it all their own way. Tree squirrels, Vervet monkeys, baboons, starlings and guineafowl are always ready to sound their alarm calls signalling the whereabouts of a predator.

These young cheetahs seemed to be spooked by many of the sounds around them. Presumably knowledge built on past experience. They became even more wary once the wind started to gust. The swirling air disturbed their senses making it difficult for them to  locate the direction of sounds and scents.

When cheetahs rest there is always one on guard keeping 360 degree surveillance. When there is an unusual sound the others quickly sit up and take notice. 

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Photographs are normally taken of cheetahs side on but you do not get a sense of how lean and thin they actually are from a side view. It is incredible to think that this wild creature can accelerate to speed of 60 miles per hour in three seconds. Equally impressive is that they can twist and swerve at these speeds to catch their prey. The power to rapidly accelerate—not just speed alone—is the key to the cheetah’s hunting success, according to Alan Wilson, a professor of locomotive biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London. “Capturing prey seems to come down to maneuvering,” he said. “It’s all the zigzagging, ducking and diving. The way cheetahs pivot and turn while sprinting was amazing. A cheetah can bank at a 50-degree angle in a high-speed turn, while a motorcycle can do maybe 45 degrees” (Source: Seth Borenstein The Associated Press). The cheetah’s long tail acts like a rudder during the high speed chase and works as a counterbalance enabling it to zig zag, making quick turns at amazing speeds.

The black tear marks  from the eye to the mouth reduce reflection in bright sunlight and improve vision. This is necessary as these lightweight speedsters hunt in daylight hours when they have less competition from lions, leopards and hyaenas. Supposedly cheetahs’ night vision is no better than a humans but they do hunt at night when necessary.

A pensive youngster. A privilege to look at them but we have no idea of their context and what they have been through to survive to this point.

This is typically how you will first see a cheetah in Mashatu. A family looking out from under the shade of a Shepherd’s tree. Solitary females are particularly vulnerable, with young to feed and defend. Males, on the other hand, are more sociable and often form coalitions of between two and five animals that stay together for life. The coalition gives them the power to defend typical territories of up to 160 square kilometres. Solitary females roam further.

It is not difficult to understand why these amazing, highly specialised  predators thrive in Mashatu. There are big open spaces, plenty of small enough prey and enough room for them to use their competitive advantage, their incredible speed when hunting. In a chase, the number of breathing movements accelerates from 16 per minute to 156. But the cheetah cannot  run more than about 800 metres or it may overheat. The cheetah cannot expel the accumulated heat rapidly enough and easily overheats.

Cheetahs are specialized hunters and do not have the braun to compete with other larger feline carnivores but they have worked out a way to thrive. Like other large carnivores, cheetahs face habitat loss driven by conversion of wilderness areas into managed land dedicated to agriculture or livestock and people who kill them as they see them as a threat to their livestock, even though cheetahs rarely kill domesticated animals.

“I see a world in the future in which we understand that all life is related to us and we treat that life with great humility and respect.”

~  David Suzuki

Today there are just 7,100 cheetahs left in the wild, according to the new study reported in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their numbers have fallen from an estimated 14,000 cheetahs in 1975, when researchers made the last comprehensive count of the animals across the African continent. The cheetah has been driven out of 91 percent of its historic range. These cats once roamed nearly all of Africa and much of Asia, but their population is now confined predominantly to six African countries: Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and Mozambique. The species is already almost extinct in Asia, with fewer than 50 individuals remaining in one isolated pocket of Iran. 

Based on these results, the study authors are calling for the cheetah’s status to be changed from “vulnerable” to “endangered” on the IUCN Red List. (Source: NationalGeographic.com).

“I am in competition with no one. I run my own race. I have no desire to play the game of being better than anyone, in my way, in any shape or form. I just aim to be better than before. That is me , I’m free.”

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let its be.

Have fun,

Mike