A special moment

My photo tour group  had an incredible morning today here in Brazil’s Pantanal region.  We saw 5 different jaguars in various environments including this mother and six week old cub drinking from the river.  Up to now, this female has been very shy with her cubs, protecting them by hiding in dense thickets and out of sight.  We were exceptionally lucky to see this.  The sky was blessedly overcast, the cats weren’t obscured by thick vegetation, and the female drank for probably two full minutes giving us ample opportunities for great images.  At this young age, the cub was able to negotiate the steep cliff to get down to the water and then it was able to climb back up.  My focal length was 472mm on a 100-500mm Canon zoom, and the settings were 1/1250, f/7.1, and 2500 ISO.  I shot this from a boat.