Animal instinct ... the Masai Mara is home to the "big five" and the big cats, including cheetahs.Photo: Lonely Planet Images
...The cheetahs are the cubs of Honey, a female cheetah that shot to fame in the BBC's popular television documentary Big Cat Week. "Honey was a real poser," says Julius, who worked as a wildlife spotter for naturalist Jonathan Scott and the BBC team. "She used to jump onto the bonnets of vehicles and stare into the camera lenses."
The boys were only 10 months old when Honey died, in February this year, in an accident. A vet had been called to treat one of her cubs. The common practice is to dart the mother with a tranquilliser before treating the cub. Unfortunately the dart hit Honey too close to the kidneys. She was revived but died about an hour later.
Mara Conservancy rangers were anxious the cubs might have been too young to survive in the wilderness on their own. Rather than send them to one of the nation's cheetah orphanages, a unit known as Cheetah One, comprising a ranger and vehicle dedicated to looking after the cubs, was given the task of checking on them each day. When they were unsuccessful at hunting, the ranger would shoot a gazelle to keep them going.
A few months down the track, these cheetahs have grown faster and stronger and have taught themselves to hunt successfully. But without the gazelle, they're likely to go hungry today....
