Eye on the Wild: Cheetah

by Eszterhas, Suzi

• ISBN13: 9781847803016
• ISBN10: 1847803016
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-21
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Summary

Young readers can follow a family of cheetahs from birth to adulthood in this unique wildlife book, photographed close-up in the wild by an award-winning photographer. Features conservation information. Full color.

Author Biography

California-based wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas spends nine months of the year shooting a wide variety of wildlife in the field. In recent years, she has specialized in documenting family life and has become well known for her unprecedented work with newborn animals. Although Eszterhas works primarily in Africa, she has undertaken commissions and led instructional photography tours and workshops everywhere from Antarctica and the Arctic to Alaska and Montana. When not on location, she divides her time between California, U.S., and Bristol, U.K.

Excerpts

Cheetah mothers give birth to the cutest little babies. They are called cubs. There are usually six to eight brothers and sisters in a cheetah family and they like nothing more than snuggling up next to mum to keep warm.
Cheetah cubs are helpless and blind when they are first born, with their eyes and ears firmly closed. When they are hungry, they make a noise that sounds like a baby bird chirping. This is why a cheetah’s den is called a ‘nest’.
Cheetah cubs are always hungry. They need to drink a lot of their mother’s milk in order to grow big and strong. Sometimes, though, when mum is away hunting, they don’t drink for almost the whole day – and then they get really hungry! The cubs drink milk every day, until they are three months old, and then they start to eat solid food.
By the time they are ten days old, the newborn cubs have grown much bigger. Their eyes and ears have opened and they can walk pretty well, but mum still makes them stay in the nest. She needs to look after them and keep them safe from enemies.