During the second week of February I was fortunate to see cheetahs almost everyday. The first few sightings were of a female and her 1-year old male cub. The mama tried hunting on a few occasions however was never successful. During one instance she got pretty close to some gerenuk however missed the chance as some vehicles disturbed the prey. Her cub at the time stayed about 100 metres away waiting anxiously for a hopeful meal.
I was also lucky to see a mother and 3 8-week old cubs. Its been a long time since I have seen such little cheetahs and they were so cute! However I was quite nervous watching these cheetahs as about 300 metres away, 3 lions were sleeping in the bushes. Lions often do kill cheetahs and I hoped the lions would remain asleep for a long time. During this same time, the two male cheetahs that I saw on the day I arrived were also around in Buffalo Springs. One male however was reported to have a bad leg and was seen limping. Overall, it was a great week of cheetah sightings.
On the 12th of February, I got a message from one of the tour-drivers that a cheetah was seen hanging in a tree. I couldn’t understand the message clearly but this was made clear early the next morning when I went out to investigate with a ranger from the reserve. I was shocked to see a dead cheetah hanging in a tree, and it had been almost entirely eaten. Only the head remained and the behind, the legs and middle were eaten completely. It had been dragged up quite high in a tree on Ansel Plains, right next to the elephant corridor. We walked around the area and saw many leopard tracks all along the main road. Lions had also visited the scene and had walked around the tree. No sign of any hyenas though. There were bones and hair under the tree, but no other sign.
I have not yet been able to identify which cheetah this was, but initially thought it was the 1 -year old cub I had seen the previous day with its mother (the tree was about 500 metres from where I had seen her). I got quite confused as after leaving the dead cheetah, I happened to come across another female cheetah with a cub. This cub was much younger however – about 8-10 months old. So this was another mama and cub! Drivers told me that that she used to have 2 cubs and maybe it was one of them that was killed by the leopard. I am still unsure but am on the look out for all the known cheetahs to see which one is missing.
It was sad to see a cheetah this way. I know cheetahs are killed by other predators but it is rare that you actually hear of a leopard that has eaten one. Cheetahs have such a struggle normally. Everything chases them and some kill them and also eat as in this instance. Lions, hyenas, leopards, jackals and even guinea-fowl give cheetahs a hard time (I have seen a whole flock of guinea-fowl chase away two male cheetahs). Unfortunately tourism pressure does not help them much and often cheetahs are stopped from hunting or prey is alerted. Cheetahs definitely need our help and we play a big role in making sure that they are given the space they need to hunt freely.