“My favourite animal to observe and photograph is the cheetah. I find their sleek, elegant bodies and expressive faces enchanting. Their impressive high speed chases are one of the most spectacular natural world behaviour to witness and photograph. However in order to be able to hunt with such incredible speed cheetahs have sacrificed strength and thus they often lose meals to lions, leopards and hyenas, making them a bit of an underdog.

They also suffer from very high cub mortality rate, so it is hard not to have special soft spot for them. Even their unique chirping noise (both adults and cubs) is surprising and seemingly fragile, especially when compared to the vocalizations of other big cats. Mother cheetahs have their work cut out for them. They often have large litters which they raise by themselves and it is rare that more than a couple, if any, survive to adulthood.

www.alisonbuttigieg.com
www.instagram.com/cheetah80

My Big 5

Cheetah
Lion
Jaguar
Ring-tailed Lemur
Elephant