Mother cheetah allows cameraman to get nail-bitingly close to her cubs as he films their fight for survival - and captures her heartbreak as THREE of her young are killed 

  • Cameraman Kim Wolhuter followed a cheetah and her family for two years
  • He was able to capture them growing from young cub to grown adult 
  • Kim faced a dilemma when one cub was injured by a baboon and he intervened
  • Witnessed the female losing three of her cubs in unfortunate circumstances
  • He reunites with one of the cheetah cubs another year later who gently licks his face and he adds: 'That for me is why I do what I do because it is so special.'

By Natalie Corner For Mailonline

Published: 04:05 EST, 2 February 2017 | Updated: 04:13 EST, 2 February 2017

Cheetahs are one of nature's most lethal predators. 

But for Kim Wolhunter they became family. The cameraman was welcomed into their fold for two years and allowed to film a mother and her five cubs in an astonishingly intimate look at their fight for survival in the wild. 

In the BBC Natural World documentary Cheetahs: Growing up fast, narrated by David Attenborough and screened this evening, Kim follows a female cheetah in the Malilangwe game reserve in Zimbabwe.

He shares in the mother's heartbreak as she loses three of her young. Two are killed by lions and a third dies from a mystery illness. One is also terribly injured from a baboon bite.

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Cameraman Kim Wolhuter was allowed an extreme close-up to a family of cheetahs as they welcomed him into their life 

He witnessed the mother and her five cubs' fight for survival in the Zimbabwe forest - meeting tragedy along the way

The female had disappeared for several months before she returned with five cubs in tow and Kim took the opportunity to film them over two years as they learned how to hunt

A decision was made to intervene, said Kim: 'We sort of have the policy, if it’s a man-made injury you come in and try and sort the animal out, but if it’s an actual injury then you don’t, unless it’s an endangered species. 

'In this instance we called a vet in and we stitched up the cheetah and took her back to her mother,' Kim explains.

The choice works in his favour as the cheetahs allow him even closer into their pack.

The mother is left with just two cubs out of her initial five offspring.

But she is determined to raise them to adulthood and turn them into the successful hunters they need to be in order to survive without her. 

The cubs were unsure of how to kill at first but with guidance from their mother they soon learned a few things about a successful hunt

Starting with five cubs, within just seven months the mother had lost three of her offspring to predators - a lion and a mystery disease

There is little dialogue from Kim in the documentary. Instead he allows the incredible footage to speak for itself, from close-up shots of the cubs rolling around in play in their early years, to them fully developed and in pursuit of their own kill.  

The female teaches her young how to use their surroundings to get a head start on their prey - climbing trees to get a clear view

When they finally get the hang of killing their own prey their mother begins marking trees with her scent, signalling the end of her offspring's childhood.

Her work is finally done, and she will leave them to start the cycle all over again when she falls pregnant with more cubs. 

One of her remaining cubs is surprised to find their mother has disappeared suddenly one bright morning, but they learn to adapt and a year later Kim is reunited with them once again. 

He describes how she greeted him by gently licking his face. His voice is thick with emotion, he says: 'That for me is why I do what I do because it is so special.' 

Natural World Cheetahs: Growing up fast airs on BBC Two, Thursday February 2 at 9pm

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