Cheetahs

Byter Nando sent me an email as follows:

Hello Otto

I happened to get some info on this photographer: Michel Denis-Huot.

Could make an interesting story.
http://www.websites-host.com/cheetah-impala-kenya-huot.htmlKind regards

Thanks Nando.

On opening the link, I found the following heartwarming story and pics:

The Law of the Wild: 

Photographer Michel Denis-Huot on safari in Kenya's Masai Mara, captures amazing pictures of Cheetahs and Impalas:  

He describes his experience:  

"These three brothers (cheetahs) have been living together since they left their mother at about 18 months old,' he said. 'On the morning we saw them, they seemed not to be hungry, walking quickly but stopping sometimes to play together. At one point, they met a group of impala who ran away... But one youngster was not quick enough, and the brothers caught it easily."  

Pictures from his fascinating experience follow:

And then they just walked away without hurting him...  

Can we learn from some cheetahs?  

“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Comments:

• The story comes from a Daily Mail article at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246886/Pictured-Three-cheetahs-spare-tiny-antelopes-life--play-instead.html

• That article, it has been said, distorted the true story by giving it a false happy ending. Indeed, the article even shows the first photograph above as the last photograph, saying that the impala made a quick getaway.

• The complete series of photographs of the cheetahs and the impala can be seen on the website of the photographers at:

http://www.denis-huot.com/sujets/index.asp?Rub=1957&LeTheme=1033

       The commentaries unfortunately are in French.

• The last 3 photographs in the series, from that website, are:

• One person has provided the following translation of the French commentary:

In Masai Mara, Kenya, three male cheetahs have lived together since they left their mother at 18 months of age. They became famous among all lovers of the Savannah. Very united and very playful, they are very difficult to follow for us photographers because they move constantly, both day and night and their territory is huge. You find them one day then the next day they are 30 km away! And they love to hunt at dusk, pouncing on the herds of wildebeest, without hesitation. One morning we found them at dawn and followed them. They stopped occasionally to play and moved on. They are obviously not hungry. But they cross the road right into a small group of fleeing impala but a young one does not run fast enough and the three brothers catch it without harm. They put it on the ground and then seem to lose interest. The small antelope is looking at the cheetahs, even sticking close by one of them. For over a quarter of an hour the cats stay with the young impala without harming him, other than to ask him or lick the paw on the head. And, finally, they decided to kill and eat him ...

• There is discussion, however, as to whether the final 3 photographs are part of the same sequence, see:

http://www.keithruffles.com/2010/02/daily-mail-fails-to-tell-whole-picture.html

Whatever the truth may be, it goes to show that in this day and age, with electronic communication and with technology at the highest level that it has ever been, we are also the age where there has been most misleading information, deception and communication manipulation.