I have disabled downloads on all the images in this Journal, but have enabled the Print options, should people be interested in purchases.
I wrote about seeing a female cheetah and her two cubs at Phinda Vlei Game Reserve the last time I visited, in November 2014 ==> CHEETAH! . On this visit in July 2016 we were very fortunate to have three major sightings of cheetah, and to be able to get up close to mothers, cubs, and young males. Our Ranger, Matt, explained a great deal about the life of cheetahs, and I should like to relay some of that knowledge to you. I have been able to check much of what follows in literature on the Web, but some of the observations come first hand from Rangers and Trackers. Photographic light was generally very good, except for one evening when dusk fell quickly and I have had to use the black arts of photo-editing to make reasonable images.
First, however, on one encounter we came across a male cub, a few months old, who provided a splendid photo op. The result was some 20 plus shots, just about all of which I would have been happy to post. However, in the interests of brevity I have compiled a montage (below). The Print option is available if people would like to buy a copy.
As I have said previously, one of the greatest thrills in game viewing is to see cheetah - the sleekest, fastest, most elegant wild cat in the world, silent and deadly, but utterly enchanting and engrossing to watch. Cheetah have been badly treated in the recent past, but in most of South Africa and especially in reserves such as Phinda, there are programmes to build up the numbers of cheetah again in the wild. As well as Man killing them as pests to farm animals, cheetah suffer from having, normally, very poor reproductive success. Plenty of cubs are born, but some estimates aver that 70-80% of the cubs die from predation and starvation before they are even able to follow their mothers. One advantage of the Reserves is that such losses can be mitigated with monitoring and management.
Our first encounter took place one evening where we encountered two mothers and 6 or 7 cubs in a clearing in fairly dense bush, close to open grassland. All of this information turns out to be important. Cheetah are diurnal animals, that is they hunt and move during the day, unlike lions whose hunting takes place more in evenings, night and early morning. Consequently, cheetah need to rest during the night. They will choose a spot near to areas where they can hunt freely during the day - hence near grassland; they will choose an area that offers protection such as dense bush because cheetahs and their cubs are prey to the big cats - lions and leopards, and to hyena. They, nevertheless, choose a clearing because this allows some degree of warning should a predator approach; similarly, cheetah will often choose a knoll overlooking grassland or bush for the same reason. Cheetah females will band together, when necessary, to look after larger groups of cubs, or one mother may look after cubs that are not her own.
There is one oddity about cheetah resting that is not to be found in the literature. Cheetah sleep for only about 5 minutes at a time! If yo watch a mature female, then she will doze off, eyes closed, seemingly fast asleep. After a few minutes, she wakes, looks around or gets up and paces, looking about, and then settles down again. While very young cubs appear to sleep longer, older ones follow a similar pattern so that in a group such as this there is always a cheetah awake - on guard.
The reason for this sleeping pattern is part of the cheetah's defense strategy. They are prone to attack by lions, especially the cubs. So, never having a prolonged sleep allows the cheetah to be on guard most of the time. There is a second part to the defense strategy, not always recognised by commentators. Cheetah, when they take down prey, often lose it to the bigger and more aggressive animals such as lions and hyena. Cheetah do not generally fight for what they have killed. They are likely to be injured or killed by the bigger foe. However, if their cubs are threatened, female cheetah adopt a clever "chase and be chased" strategy. If a lion suddenly appeared in the clearing, the cheetah in the image would run at it; lions are often taken aback by attacks, and in this example, the predator is likely to pause or even momentarily retreat. Using her speed and agility the cheetah would then turn tail and run off a short distance whereupon the lion would follow. The pattern would be repeated, all the time the cheetah is drawing the lion away from the cubs, who having heard the mother's warning will have dispersed into the bush in the opposite direction. So, having short periods of sleep and a fast attack/retreat strategy can reduce the likelihood of cub loss, but, of course, never always successfully.
Our second encounter was with a mother and half a dozen cubs resting on a mound in fairly open bush, early in the morning. This encounter was the source of the montage image. She was very contentedly lying snoozing, occasionally looking up to check the surroundings. The cubs were playing, but drowsy in the Sun, some keeping watch, one having a wash!
The third encounter was with a group of three young males. There is a curious and from a human point of view slightly disturbing aspect to the rearing of cheetah cubs. The mother does everything in her power to feed and protect her litter of cubs, such litters being up to 8 born with hopefully 4 or 5 reaching adulthood. The rearing period is from 13-18 months according to sources on the Web. When the rearing is over, the female just gets up one morning and leaves - just like that. Some female grown cubs may have left already, but otherwise the mother just goes, leaving particularly the males to fend for themselves. As a consequence, male cheetahs form coalitions, especially between birth siblings with normally two or three in the coalition. They will hunt together and protect one another, the relationship lasting, normally, for life. We came across such a trio wandering along a track without a care in the world. No problem crossing the road, says one,so long as I look left, right, and left again; while another has a quick snooze and licks the air before crossing and settling down again! After sitting around, assessing the situation, marking this as their territory in the usual way, they disappeared off into the bush - looking for game.
Overall on this trip, we learnt about cheetah defense strategy, rearing behaviour, cubs playing, and young males running in coalitions. Well, I could go on and on about cheetah, but I'll call a halt here. Hope you enjoyed the photographs, and I look forward to any feedback.
Cheers
David Okavanga
Skin by Dan Leveille
