Christian Sperka is a wildlife photographer based at Thanda Private Game Reserve, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.
Over the last 11 years, Christian has traveled the world photographing animals in wild game reserves of South Africa and Namibia, the jungles of Costa Rica, in Yellowstone National Park in the USA, as well as zoos in Europe and the United States. His work has been featured in wildlife magazines, in books and in many zoo publications.
He actively supports wild cat conservation, working as a partner photographer for Panthera, the world's leading organization devoted to the conservation of all wild cat species (panthera.org).
From 2009 to 2012 he has worked as the official photographer and photography teacher at Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, Tennessee, USA (nashvillezoo.org).
Christian is also a qualified South African field guide. He now works as specialist photography guide on Thanda Private Game Reserve in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa (thanda.com).
On 22 September 2012 I did my first game drive with one of Thanda Safari’s most experienced trackers: Bheki Ngubane. Ten years later we are still working as a team. My sincere thanks to a great colleague and an excellent teacher. I learned more about the bush from Bheki than from all of my nature books together!
Four four month old Cheetah cubs are now roaming on Thanda Safari with their mom!
They were born in a boma (a large hold pen) where there mother had been put for medical reasons.
This is the second time she gave birth and looked after her cubs for the first four months of their life in a boma. The first time she brought up her three cubs successfully until they reached adulthood in the wild. She taught them all the skills to hunt and survive by themselves.
Thanda Safari’s Wildlife team will be observing this Cheetah family and all of us at Thanda hope that the four new cubs will do as well as their older siblings.
This morning these Zebras did not run away when they encountered Thanda Safari’s two dominant male Lions on the open savanna. They kept watching the two cats while moving around them in a wide circle on the way to their morning drink at a waterhole.