Οι νικήτριες φωτογραφίες του διαγωνισμού Veolia Environnement Wildlife

Practice run…Winner.
When a female cheetah caught but didnt kill a Thomsons gazelle calf and waited for her cubs to join her, Grgoire guessed what was about to happen. Hed spent nearly a decade studying and photographing cheetahs in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, and he knew that the females behaviour meant one thing: a hunting lesson was due to begin. The female moved away, leaving the calf lying on the ground near her cubs. At first, the cubs took no notice of it. But when it struggled jerkily to its feet the cubs natural predatory instincts were triggered, says Grgoire. Each cubs gaze locked on to the calf as it made a break for freedom. The lesson repeated itself several times, with the cubs ignoring the calf when it was on the ground and catching it whenever it tried to escape an exercise that affords the cubs the chance to practise chases in preparation for the time theyll have to do so for real.