It's morning in the Kalahari, and this female cheetah has discovered that her cubs are growing ever more independent. She calls for them, but they’ve already gone out exploring. And they’ve discovered a wounded gemsbok that may have escaped from a lion. It's weak, but something tells them, they are still out of their league. They're intrigued, but they don't know what to do. Its horns could be lethal. It's too big, even for their mother to tackle. Eventually, their curiosity satisfied, they heed their mother, and leave the gemsbok to its fate.

Young male cheetahs like these often team up together. Whereas female cheetahs livesolitary lives unless they have cubs. These two are probably brothers and partners for life. They hunt, go courting, and today, they are exploring together. The cheetah cubs have gone out hunting without their mother, and have come across a herd of gemsbok. And the hunt is on. They’ve caught a calf, but they are about to find out that like their own mother, the calf's mother’s fierce, when her offspring are threatened.

She's desperate to free her youngster from the cheetah's strangling bite. The calf seems none the worse for its adventure. And its mother turns her attention again to the cheetahs. The calf had a lucky escape. But the cheetahs have been fortunate as well. Gemsbok horns are deadly weapons. The cow could so easily have killed them.

When the cheetah cubs are about 18 months old, they are old enough to leave their mother, and to seek their own fortunes. Once they go, she may never see them again.