They capture the majestic moment when a family of cheetahs crosses the river full of crocodilesNEXT By SUSANA BARRADAS · 13 Feb 2023
Nature is capable of giving us one or another moment, mostly unique and wonderful. Fortunately, some of them are documented by those who have the privilege of witnessing them, and from Zoorprendente today we bring you a really impressive one.
This is precisely what happened to Arnfinn Johansen and Buddhilini De Soyza, wildlife photography professionals, when they found themselves in front of a concentration of cats that were ready to cross the river.
The privileged photographers witnessed a majestic moment that they will never forget
moment
Although wildlife photographers have one of the most dangerous jobs, the stunning images they manage to capture make their job one of the most rewarding.
They never suspected that they could witness such behavior in a herd of cheetahs.
The majestic photographs of Arnfinn Johansen and Buddhilini De Soyza were captured while touring the Maasai Mara National Park, located in Kenya.
After days hard work, they had the most wonderful gift
These photographers managed to immortalize a family of five cheetahs that they had been following for days and that finally appeared from the dense vegetation.
The cheetah is the fastest land animal, since it reaches a top speed of up to 115 km/h, in races of up to four or five hundred meters. Females can have up to five pups per litter. Their main prey is Thomson’s gazelle.
The cheetah is one of the cats most at risk of disappearing as its numbers have dropped by more than 50 percent in the last twenty-five years and its habitat has disappeared by 90 percent.
Although the sight of such a large family of these specimens is rare, what these animals did was what left these photographers, and the millions of users of the networks, breathless.
They were preparing to cross the mighty river without imagining the danger they faced
Luckily for all of us, Arnfinn and Buddhilini were working in an African sanctuary and managed to capture when the cats gathered to cross a rushing river that was flooded by heavy rains.
Fewer than 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild
The river was very dangerous, but not only because of the strong current, but also because of the presence of crocodiles that, waiting for their dinner, looked at the cats as if it were a special dinner at home.
When crocodiles are very bulky, they come to hunt antelopes, zebras, warthogs, large domestic animals and even humans.
They are capable of ingesting up to half their weight in food.
“They hunt on both sides of the Talek River, so it’s no wonder they wanted to cross it. Normally, they would do it by walking on stones, but this year it rained for a long time and because of the flooding, it was very difficult for them to do it,” Arnfinn explained.
Photographer Arnfinn said that he had been following the five cheetahs for a long time.
“They were walking along the river for quite some time, looking for a place to get to the other side, but because of the strong current, it was really dangerous. Also, that river is home to the Nile crocodile,” Arnfinn added.
These photographers couldn’t believe it, they had been following these animals for days without success when out of nowhere they appeared in front of them ready to do something crazy.
They barely got their glasses ready when the cheetahs started jumping into the water.
“First, the cheetah leader jumped into the river, with two more soon following. The two smallest cheetahs in the group waited a few seconds before following them,» Arnfinn said.
Fortunately, all the cheetahs made it to the other side alive.
“The herd swam as fast as they could. You could really see they didn’t like it,» Arnfinn added.
Undoubtedly, a shocking moment that shows us how unpredictable nature can be, even though we humans run out of breath in its process. It never ceases to amaze us!
