By JANE FRYER

Last updated at 10:00 15 January 2008

For many youngsters, lessons have a tendency to feel long, interminably boring and difficult to sit still through.

Not, however, if you're a cheetah cub in Africa undergoing a masterclass in hunting from your very impressive mother.

This extraordinary series of photographs, taken in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya by top environmental photographer Andy Rouse, show a female cheetah demonstrating to her young the first rules of survival in the wild - how to hunt and kill.

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Of course, it helps when you're the world's fastest land animal and can run at speeds of up to 70mph.

But technique still comes in handy and, as this baby Thomson's gazelle finds out, it can be the difference between life and death.

First, the mother cheetah spots her prey grazing without a care in the world. Next, she's slinking slowly forward, belly hanging low, padded feet silent until she's close enough.

Then she pounces, grabs the panting creature in her teeth, and bounds back with it to her delighted offspring, dropping it, unharmed but terrified, at their feet.

Green to the art of killing, they think they've a brand-new friend and,

pleased as punch, begin playing with it - nuzzling, and pawing and biting it as it staggers to its wobbly feet and tries to flee, again and again.

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Each time it escapes, the mother encourages her cubs to chase it and, each time they fail, she sprints off herself to retrieve it - without killing it - and starts the process again.

"It is the only way cheetah cubs can learn to hunt," explains Mr Rouse, who trailed the cheetah all day for these pictures.

"She picked up the gazelle and put it down by the cubs. The gazelle kept running away, but eventually it was exhausted. She chased it until it couldn't run any more."

For the cubs, this is the most important lesson they will learn from their mother. Their survival depends on being able to hunt for food, and avoid predators, such as eagles.

Because, at 18 months, their mother will leave them to fend for themselves. Back in the burnt grass of the Masai Mara, the hunting lesson is drawing to a close.

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After more than 20 minutes of torture for the gazelle, the cubs are getting the hang of it, their mother is satisfied and the gazelle, half-dead and breath coming in huge gasping rasps, makes one last bid for freedom.

For more amazing photos, see www.andyrouse.co.uk

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