Sun Destinations

 

Our resident videographer, Dave, has been hard at work capturing essential wildlife moments on camera. This video of a cheetah kill in the Kruger was taken while out on a game drive with the nThambo and Africa on Foot rangers.

Here are my two reasons for labelling this cheetah kill in the Kruger a remarkable and unusual event:

1.  The cheetah is an elusive cat that traverses a massive territory. Catching a glimpse of them in the wild is considered a rare sighting. While on safari at Africa on Foot and nThambo we witnessed the stalking, take down and devouring of a steenbok calf by two cheetah brothers.

2. Cheetahs stalk their prey in pairs but they are actually solitary hunters. Often they prey on young antelope. They use a diversion method tactic when it comes to hunting – one does the distracting of the adult antelope and the other does the ambushing. The only time the two will ambush together is when they want to take down large prey.  The reason being that cheetahs have small incisors and thus attacking smaller prey with narrow necks makes the strangulation process easier. In this video, we have the smallest antelope species being attacked and hunted by both brothers ! Remarkable – did two of them really need to carry the steenbok together?

A few facts:

• Cheetahs have adapted their hunting skills to fit their habitat. Although used to hunting in open plains using their speed to their advantage, in the Kruger they have adapted their “style” and use the tall grasses to stalk their prey. With stealth they observe, monitor and silently creep closer to their target. Despite being the fastest land animal, they cannot sustain their speed for leangthy periods of time. This is why they need to creep as close to their prey as possible.
• There is only ever a 1 in 10 chance of a cheetah actually successfully making the kill.
• Being delicate creatures, their temperaure rises during the chase of the kill and need to rest after periods of exertion.
• They do not have the energy to fight off scavenegers and predators who want to steal their prey. This is why the often begin feasting even before the animal is completely dead. One of the cheetahs will generally “keep watch” while the other devours the meal. In the below video and images you will notice one of the cheetahs keeping guard while the other eats.

Hope you enjoy the video and have a better understanding of how the cheetah

Enjoy the cheetah images and video!