These kids eat nothing but fast food: SIX hungry cheetah cubs learn to hunt with mum

Last updated at 1:57 AM on 1st December 2010

With six hungry mouths to feed, there's only one thing a mother can do – teach the kids to get their own tea.

This cheetah and her unusually large family seem to be making good progress on the self-catering front, even if the playful cubs sometimes forget hunting duty for a spot of rough and tumble instead.

Barely 10 per cent of cheetah cubs make it past three months in the wild, so at a sleek four months, these youngsters have already beaten the harshest of odds.

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A cheetah with her six cubs in Massai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, all in a row

And they are a real credit to their mother's ingenuity and dedication. As well as teaching them to hunt, she has to keep them hidden from predators, frequently changing hiding places to keep their enemies guessing.

Then she has to put up with their rather boisterous behaviour – six times over. But the family photos, taken in Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, show she is managing beautifully so far.

A spokesman for the Cheetah Conservation Fund was delighted that such an endangered species is doing so well. She said: 'It fills us with hope that a mother can successfully look after numbers like this.'

UP HERE! The cheetah led her brood up a tree for a better look at the beautiful surroundings

She no doubt has her paws full with the rambunctious brood

But she'll have her paws full for some time.

Cheetah cubs don't leave their mothers until they are 18 months old.

Captured on camera in October in the Massai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, by Italian wildlife photographer Paolo Torchio the little ones pestering their dedicated mum - just like excitable school kids running around the feet of a human parent.