Sola

‘Sola’
(Feminine form of solus)
alone; by oneself

This female cheetah, known as ‘Shashe’ (a river between Botswana and Zimbabwe), thrives in the plains of the Little Karoo in South Africa. In 2021, I had the privilege of spending time alone with her for a number of weeks and caught a glimpse into her daily life. Witnessing everything from resting, looking for potential prey, hunting, dealing with hungry jackals and even avoiding other cheetahs in the area. This is all if I even managed to find her on the day as she was living a very secretive life between litters. Her previous litter of four had reached maturity and she now had the luxury of having to only provide for herself until inevitably conceiving once again.

Behind the photograph:

On this spring afternoon, Shashe had just missed out in a failed hunting attempt on a small herd of springbok and was now watching them from a distance. She hadn’t had much success in the days prior to this and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loneliness from her. This is the life of a female cheetah, though, and in hind site I was mirroring my own internal feelings onto her.