For the topic of my bachelor thesis ” the impact of relocating leopards and cheetahs focused on behavior, social interaction and mental health” I decided to plan a journey to South Africa for 100 days. I worked together with a few sanctuaries and also visited countless wildlife reserves. Especially monitoring their meals, active time/day, communication with their pride are huge indicators. Although these animals look very tough and some of them are also classified as apex predators they can have a very sensitive psyche which needs to be well cared of. Relocating animals needs to be well weigh up because its very huge stress the animals suffer by the transport itself and the days/weeks they need to adapt to the new habitat. But of course in many situations this is not avoidable and needs to be done. Good preparation, a solid team and a good vet is the key to success here.

While observing them I was able to capture a huge variety of animals in their natural habitat like birds of prey, caracals, dolphins, penguins, servals and countless insects.

One of the most memorable moments was this scenery – watching a beautiful female cheetah while she was observing her environment covered in the lights of a purple sunset. Their incredible good eyes can spot their prey from far distances and combined with their ability to run up to 125km/h makes them very good predators.