Big Cats in Etosha

Etosha National Park is a huge park in northwestern Namibia with some of the greatest wildlife in Africa.  We were really lucky to see quite a few of the “big cats” that call Etosha home.

Lions are mostly nocturnal.  They usually hunt during the nights and spend most of the day sleeping.  It was about 5:00 p.m. when we happened upon this pride of young lions. 

A lazy pride of lions

They were just starting to wake up.  We’ll let the yawn do the talking!

Big yawn

Cheetahs are the smallest and fastest of the “big cats.”  They are more active during the day and leave the night hunting to the lions and leopards.  On our second afternoon in the park we saw a couple of cheetahs chasing a herd of springbok.  The next morning we caught this cheetah looking for a drink at one of the many watering holes in the park.

A cheetah looking for a cool drink of water

The leopards proved elusive and turned out to be the the only one of the Big 5 that we missed out on seeing.