(All Images courtesy alisonbuttigieg.com)
It may sound like a perfect tale of sacrifice, an impala mother giving up her life for the safety of her calves and getting eaten by a family of cheetahs.
However, the truth is different.
In 2013, a photographer named Alison Buttigieg took some photos of cheetah eating its prey, a young impala.
Four years later, these photos went viral with a fake story of a calm impala letting herself die for the for the sake of her babies.
The viral story claimed that the innocent impala sacrificed her life so her calves could escape.
There were also reports that claimed the photographer fell into depression after witnessing the selfless act.
To debunk all the rumours Alsion took to Facebook to express her disgust at the craziness of fake news.
In her blog, Alison narrates the real story.
"I witnessed this Cheetah kill in September 2013 in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. Narasha, the cheetah mom, was teaching her youngsters how to kill prey.
However, they were a bit slow on the uptake and they instead were playing with the hapless Impala prey instead of killing it.
Narasha, the cheetah mom is the one that is grabbing the impala by the neck in all the photos. The youngsters practice some skills like pouncing and tripping which they get right, but they cannot seem to be able to get how to strangle the impala effectively.
What is out of the ordinary in this sequence of photos is how calm the impala is throughout its ordeal. It is probably in shock and thus paralysed with fear. It is disturbing how it seems to be posing in some photos, especially in the sixth one as if determined to stay beautiful and proud until it’s very end.
The defiance in its eyes are in stark contrast with its lack of interest in self-preservation. This allowed me to get unique pictures of a kill that are seemingly choreographed in their grace. I wanted the viewer to sympathise with the impala, and at the same time witness with me the disturbing nature of this unusual kill.
In the end, after what seemed like an interminable eternity (but it was just a few minutes), the cheetah mom put the impala out of it’s misery, and the cats got to enjoy a nice meal."