An extraordinary photo opportunity presented itself when a troop of five cheetah siblings were crossing the fast-moving Talek River in Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya.
It’s generally believed that cats don’t like water, but these big spotted felines had no choice but to hop in and swim in order to make it across.
Getting the incredible photo was the fruit of a great deal of patience on part of Johansen and his fellow photographer Buddhilini de Soyza. Johansen explained to Bored Panda that cheetahs “hunt on both sides of the Talek River, [so it’s no wonder] they wanted to cross it.”
“Normally, they would cross the river by walking on stones but this year, it had been raining for a long time and because of the flooding, it was very difficult for them to do so,” he added.
Such difficult conditions mean that the cheetahs spend a much longer time than usual weighing the decision and finding the safest places to cross.
“Not long ago, another well-known cheetah drowned or got killed by the crocs when it was crossing the same river so it really was a big risk,“ Johansen noted. ”After surveying the area for a long time, the five cheetah brothers went for it.”
“First, the leader cheetah jumped into the river, and two more soon followed,” Johansen said. “The two smallest cheetahs in the group waited for a few seconds before they followed as well.” The fact that the pack each got across at their own pace gave the photographers extra time to snap some extraordinary shots of each of them.
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