This experience with the African Cheetah at Hunter Valley Zoo is one of my most memorable. I find with the eyes of the cheetah they have very dark underlinings which can cause the eye to be very dark and you can’t see the full eye, the lighting on this day was perfect just enough of a mixture of darkness and light to capture the essence of the cheetah through his eyes.

On this particular day they were very active I think due to the cool weather the cats definitely enjoyed it as they were posing in full form. The cheetah is one cat I haven’t properly captured before as I always felt they are very fast cats and their movements are very erratic and hard to judge from their behaviour.

Using faster reaction times to capture these images helped me to achieve my desired results on this day, this is my 5th encounter with the cheetahs at Hunter Valley Zoo, they are beautiful cats

The saddest facts about the cheetah is that approximately 6,700 adults are remaining in the wild and only a 5% survival rate for the cubs to reach adult hood. These numbers are the direct result of increase in human population causing the cheetahs habitat to be reduced in the near future, 76% of cheetahs live on unprotected land there numbers are steadily declining with our numbers growing they will slowly start dropping in numbers.

The illegal trade in the East African Region is where the wildlife population is at greatest risk due to cheetahs being poached for the skin and for the pet trade.