Tuesday Morning 16th September
Ok, so these are not Caracals. I'm sorry to disappoint you.
Incredibly, we had come across a second family of cheetahs, this time with three even younger cubs.
We were to see several more cheetahs during our sojourn, but these two sightings were the best for seeing cubs at play, so fear not, these blogs will not just be about cheetahs.
This family was on the move. The mother has a constant fear that her cubs will be lost to predators.
I guess all species have fears for their children. Thankfully being eaten by hyenas is not high on our list.
Hyenas, lions, leopards, all these big predators and scavengers will eat these little adorable kittens. Just a tasty snack for them.
Despite being the fastest land animal on earth, they are sadly racing towards extinction. This is because of their high mortality rate as cubs, from predation, habitat loss and poaching.
Cheetahs are not territorial. There are too many dangers around for them to stay in one place.
Hyenas probably pose the greatest risk, and not just because they are big ugly brutes (although other opinions are available) but because there are so damned many of them.
Cheetahs will know how to avoid lions, as they are territorial, but hyenas spread far and wide.
More of them later.
We were to spend a whole hour with these cubs and their punk hair style.
Their play is identical to that of the domestic moggy.
Although, as an adult, they do move considerably faster than our's do.
As usual, cheetahs show no fear of humans, and will come very close to us without aggression.
In fact, they were once kept as house pets. Notably in ancient Egypt. Surprisingly, that was even before I was born.
Unusually for cats, they cannot fully retract their claws.
We were to have first-hand experience of this later in the week.
Sometimes they come too close...
Cheetahs are not the only ones like this, as we were to find out the next day.
This typical pose is the mother watching for two things. Predators and food.
The food doesn't come in a delivery van, but has to be fetched fresh and kicking.
Or so she thought...
We, on the other hand, are still on our own hunt. So let's get back to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment