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***EXCLUSIVE***

MAASAI MARA, KENYA - UNDATED: A female cheetah sits on the roof of a jeep in Maasai Mara, Kenya.

A WILD 120-pound cheetah came face-to-face with a London-photographer while trying to use his Land Cruiser as a look-out post. They climb the highest point available, usually a termite mound, to spot their prey, but this clever mother-cheetah was so determined to find food for her cubs that she thought nothing of jumping onto whatever high-place she could – in this case by hitching a ride on a moving Land Cruiser.

Photographer David Lloyd, originally from New Zealand, but living in the UK for the past-24-9-years was capturing wildlife in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya when picked up the unexpected hitch-hiker. The 10,000 wild cheetahs that survive in Africa are classified as being vulnerable by wildlife experts. While they used to roam across Africa, their population has declined by as much as 75-percent in the last 100-years and they are thought to be extinct in North Africa countries such as Egypt.

Scientists are puzzled by the decline of the cheetah, and it is thought that low-genetic diversity could be the cause. However, the Masai Mara is the playground of the cheetahs, where they can run up to 64-miles-per-hour to catch their prey. Smaller that lions, cheetahs usually hunt small antelopes such as impala, however they have been known to bring down animals as large as zebras and wildebeest.

PHOTOGRAPH BY David Lloyd / Barcroft Media

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