We’ve had a couple nice surprises in the last 24 hours. First, at about 11pm last night, we were roused awake by a group of elephants passing right through camp. I peeped out my tent window and saw the giant black silhouettes only feet from Shivani’s tent. Their footsteps were barely audible, but we could certainly hear the crack of tree branches as they browsed and the deep rumbling vocalizations they made to each other. Just when I was worried we would have to shoo them away (our scare little shade trees in camp are far too valuable to end up as elephant snack) they moved on into the night.
The second surprise came at dawn. Lately, morning patrols through the Conservation Area have yielded very little. But this morning we came around a corner and Shivani spotted something brown and cat-like run between some bushes up ahead. We drove quickly up the road and then saw them unmistakably: four cheetahs! A mother and her three cubs had a kill that they were carrying into the bushes. In the 2+ years working in West Gate this was Shivani’s first sighting of cheetahs here – and our first sighting in the Conservation Area. This is especially remarkable since these cheetahs were found on community land, outside the parks. They were clearly shy and unaccustomed to vehicles. In fact, we might have been the first vehicle the cubs – about 20 months old – had ever seen. The cubs sat watching us curiously, but the mother was hidden deep under an Acacia tree. We snapped some photos, recorded the GPS coordinates and time, and then let them be. A great morning!
Two of the three cheetah cubs spotted in the Conservation Area. They are about 20 months old and appear very healthy.