This was our final day in Samburu before heading off to the Masai Mara, so we set out early looking again for the Samburu ‘special five’.  The main goal was the wonderfully striped grevy’s zebra.  We found a herd quite early on, and they gave us plenty of good opportunity to photograph them.  Moving on from the herd of zebra, we spent some time with a male somali ostrich and a few elephants before finding a female leopard.  As we found her, she gave chase after a black-backed jackal, and very nearly caught it.  We followed her for a little while, until she eventually moved up into one of the hills. We thought the good times were done, and were heading back to the airstrip, when we saw a cheetah on the move.  The cheetah was looking quite intent, and started stalking a gerenuk, which was standing up feeding and had not seen the cheetah.  I thought for all money the cheetah was in for a meal, but the crafty gerenuk turned while standing on only its back legs, and saw the cheetah twenty or so meters away from it.  It gave a short sharp call, and made an enthusiastic dash for safety.  Very exciting stuff indeed.

Major sightings of the day:

2 black-backed jackals with a dik-dik kill

Herd of elephants

Female leopard chasing a black-backed jackal

Female cheetah stalking a gerenuk

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