This charming autobiographical tale from Princess Michael of Kent tells of a girl growing up and the incredible bond that can exist between people and animals. Beautifully written by a natural storyteller and packed with fabulous photographs, it is also a wonderful portrait of Africa - the cheetah version of Born Free - and will delight readers worldwide. In the early 1960s, Marie Christine von Reibnitz (who would later become HRH Princess Michael of Kent) lived with her father on his farm in Mozambique. Then just a teenager, Princess Michael was entranced by the African landscape, by the wildlife and by the people she met. It was one of the happiest times of her life and she recounts that it was an orphaned cheetah cub (called Tess) who played a huge part in making it so. The relationship between the young Princess Michael and Tess, whom she hand-reared and later successfully released into the wild having trained her to hunt and survive on her own, will touch every reader's heart. The events of that period have remained with Princess Michael for the rest of her life and in A Cheetah's Tale she recalls not just the tale of Tess, but also the realities of life in Africa: from waking up in the middle of the night to find her father had just shot a lioness that was about to eat her to discovering a deadly Black Mamba curled up inside the loo! Tess was the inspiration for Princess Michael's lifelong interest in cheetah conservation and the epilogue covers some of her work as Patron of the Endangered Species Centre in South Africa and of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia.

"The Cheetah's Tale is a heartwarming tale of a little girl who finds a malnourished cheetah cub caged in the back of a small shop in a bazaar. Her mother agrees to buy the animal to save its life, and the little girl rears the cub at their house until it grows into a fine young cheetah. This uplifting story of a young child's relationship with a wild animal gives children insight into the conservation and ethical protection of wildlife in general and big cats in particular."--Jacket flap

Klappentext: In the days when cheetahs roamed fom the steppes of Soviet Russia to the southern African Cape, there was an abundance of food, and the great running cats were masters of a domain that spanned the globe. Today that habitat is but a shadow of its former range. The cheetah's retreat has been dramatic. Its old habitat has been increasingly usurped by mankind for urban and agricultural development. More and more driven away from the open grassland of its fomer range towards the edges of woodland and forest, the cheetah must adapt. That we are witnessing just such an environmental adaption evolving in the King Cheetah, is the eloquently argued conclusion reached in this account by Lena Godsall Bottriell of one of the most thoroughly researched and adventurous expiditions to come out of Africa in recent times. In 1978, following 18 months preliminary planning, Lena and her husband Paul Bottriell launched an expedition to southern Africa with the aim of increasing the current field knowledge of the legendary King Cheetah. Fourteen months fieldwork, from Botswana, though war-torn Rhodesia, to a final, unique ballon search in Kruger National Park marked the beginning of a further eight years comprehensive research which while documenting nearly forty specimens, and firmly establishing the existance of King Cheetah in the wild, convincingly argues the case for the legendary striped cheetah of southern Africa, being a new geographic race of cheetah in the process of evolving. King Cheetah, an eminently readable account illustrated with breathtaking photographs, offers a major contribution to natural history.

A Cheetah's Tale is a story about the love, devotion and survival of a cheetah through the eyes of Kenya, the cub.

This brightly illustrated board book describes the cheetah, one of the fastest animals in the world, and provides young readers with fascinating facts. This shaped book has a real bendable tail covered with a soft cloth. Full-color illustrations.

In the wild, cheetahs are among the most endangered species. Hunting, disease, and destruction of their natural habitat have all played a part in reducing the world population. This lively photo essay introduces young readers to this sleek and beautiful big cat.