Interesting Photo of the Day: Cheetah Licks Photographer’s Toes

Wildlife photographer and filmmaker Kim Wolhuter had been filming a mother cheetah and her four cubs in Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana for six weeks before this incredible picture was taken. Wolhuter, it seems, had built up such trust with the cheetah family that the young female decided to come in for a closer look of the photographer, a little inspection… and a little lick of his toe:

cheetah licks foot photo

Cheetah licks photographer’s toe by Kim Wolhuter (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

On this particular day, Wolhuter had been following the cheetah family after a morning kill. Since their bellies were full, the big cats decided to have a little rest, and Wolhuter himself took a little break under the shade of a small Shepherds tree about seven or eight meters away. As he writes on his Facebook page,

“How they’ve come to accept me like this is insane. It is just what it is and I can only treasure the pure privilege.”

Surrounded by giraffe, the photographer and cheetahs dozed in the heat. Between napping, Wolhuter snapped some shots of the family and at one point one of them got a bit curious.

“The sun was peeping through a gap in the clouds on the horizon when the young female cheetah got curious. She came to me, bent down and gently nibbled my toe! I slowly pulled it away not knowing how long the gentle would last. She wasn’t too [fazed] and went back to her siblings as if proving to them she’d pulled off the ‘dare.’ Such a privilege!”

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