How Cheetahs Live – Shaped by Land and Season

This cheetah series brings together images from different regions of Southern Africa, showing how landscape and season shape behaviour.

My own sequence of a pregnant cheetah at Pom Pom Camp in the Okavango Delta was photographed after the rains, when the landscape is lush and green. In this setting, encounters unfold slowly, shaped by abundance, proximity and time spent with a single animal.

By contrast, Steve Segall’s images, taken primarily in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park — a vast conservation area spanning Botswana, Namibia and South Africa — reflect life in open, arid terrain, where distance, visibility and elevation play a central role. One image was photographed in Kruger National Park during the dry season.

The gallery concludes with an image from Zimbabwe during the rainy season, offering a final seasonal counterpoint.

Together, the images trace a contrast between dry and green seasons, revealed through place, light and movement.

Thank you for taking the time to look closely. These images are less about speed than about presence: how land, season, and light shape the daily lives of cheetahs in ways we rarely notice.

— Alexandra