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May 26, 2005

He Wants To See The Cheetahs

So I asked Shane if there was anything he particularly wanted to do on our East African honeymoon. He thought about it for a minute and then said:

"I want to see the cheetahs."

That was all he said.

Cheetahs are either really easy or really hard to spot in the wild. In South Africa, I saw them on two seperate occassions. Once in Kruger National Park, and once in Pilanesburg National Park. We were on a night drive in Kruger, near Shimuwini bush camp, and it was just after sunset. We came upon three cheetahs - a mother and two cubs almost old enough to be left on their own, laying together and rolling about in the grass. They had finished hunting for the day and were settling in for the night.

The second time I spotted a cheetah, I was driving and I happened to notice one hiding in the shade of a bush on a hot day. The only reason I saw it was that she passed within my line of site as I drove (carefully watching in case animals ran across the road).

I have never seen them run. I have never seen any cubs. So I am hoping that Shane and I will not only see cheetah - we will see cheetah running, eating, and with cubs.

Cheetah means "Spotted One"

Cheetahs are the fastest land animal, topping off at sprinting speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. They can go from standing to 45mph in two seconds. At one time, the highly adaptable cheetah lived all over Africa and the Middle East as far as India. There's even some evidence that humans once tamed them and trained them. The Indian emperor Akbar the Great kept 3000 cheetahs he used for hunting. Over time, cheetahs were killed for their coats, and now they are an endangered species living only in a few protected nature preserves in Africa.

Female cheetahs are relatively solitary, but the males hunt in packs and can bring down larger creatures like wildebeests. All cheetahs are vulnerable after they've made a kill because they tire from sprinting, and their kills are often stolen by lions or hyenas. Cheetahs hunt during the day and rest at night and during the hottest parts of the day, in the shade. Cheetah's predators include lions, hyenas, leopards and humans, but have never been known to attack humans.

Cheetahs communicate several key times: to warn away other cheetahs, to communicate within their family over long distances, and to communicate between mothers and cubs. Litters are between 1 and 4 cubs, and newborn cubs are blind and clumsy. They don't growl and purr, but make chirping noises when they're happy. Mothers stay with cubs for a long time. As they get older, mother will hunt and then call her cubs to her to eat. If a mother cheetah calls to her cubs and they do not come, she will often leave a large kill and go retrieve her cubs. This is another way a cheetah may lose her kill, making it difficult to feed her young. Because of all these factors, only 1 in 20 cubs survives to adulthood.

Young cheetahs will often role-play "Hunter & Prey". These mock hunts serve a purpose, to train the young ones to feed themselves when they are older.

Sources:
Endangered! Cheetahs by Shona Grimbly
My Cheetah Family by Matto H. Barfuss
Cheetah Conservation Fund

Posted by sorsha at May 26, 2005 7:06 PM