Cheetah

BORN TO RUN - The Cheetah

The tension was almost unbearable as we watched the mother raise herself slowly from her crouched position in the blonde grass. The small herd of gazelles paced jerkily about the clearing, dropping their snouts to nibble, then bobbing their heads to sniff the breeze. They were no more than 100 metres apart. The wind was in the cheetah's favour and she inhaled the scent of her favourite prey. Behind her, hidden at the base of a termite mound, her three little cubs were silent and motionless. The family hadn¹t eaten for three days.

Suddenly, a male gazelle snorted and stomped its foot. The group instantly stopped feeding and each animal went rigid, ready to bolt. Another snort and then we noticed that the gazelles were staring intently at a jackal slinking past. Seeing her quarry distracted, the cheetah decided to make her move. It was now or never.

Like a sprung elastic band she propelled herself forward in a blur of spots and limbs. The gazelles were startled but jolted themselves to action, zigzagging across the plain in panic. The mother had identified one of the males and with her tail up and out like a rudder, she matched his every twist, and was gaining ground. This was it. At full stretch, the mother reached out with her front leg and managed to clip the ankle of the gazelle. He spun and toppled. She was onto him and clasped his throat. Dust and blood, the family would at last feed.

Such a successful hunt is by no means certain for cheetah. This, the fastest of the world's animals, is the least imposing of Africa's large predators and sits at the bottom of the predator hierarchy. Though displaying great speed and fitness in making kills, it is often robbed of its meals by scavenging lions or hyenas. Even a large mob of hungry vultures can drive a cheetah from its meal.

Specialist Sprinter
Reliably clocked at 105 kilometres per hour, the cheetah is the fastest land mammal, easily outpacing the bred-for-speed domestic greyhound. With its narrow waist it is often said to be built more like a dog than a cat, but this is a true feline even though it may have blunt non-retractable claws.

Whereas all other cats - large and small - rely on a "stalk and pounce" approach to capturing prey, the cheetah relies on speed. The non-retractable claws are an evolutionary trade off - they act like runner's spiked soles when on the move, but are not as adept at pinning down prey. Of course, it is not possible to sprint at high speed in the dark, so the cheetah hunts by day and this is convenient in the sense that most other predators are primarily nocturnal.

Cheetah thrive where the habitat is open and suitable prey - small to medium-sized antelope - abounds. They do even better when lion and spotted hyena are not present, and this explains why they have proliferated over much of Namibia (farmers have eliminated the more powerful predators) and soon expand in number when reintroduced to small reserves lacking larger predators.

Family Life

Female cheetah are solitary and - under ideal conditions - raise litters of two to four cubs every second year. It is no easy task for the mother to provide alone for her family, and there is usually a high mortality of cubs in their first year. Unlike leopards, female cheetah do not have territories, and wander over an extensive area, perhaps remaining in one place for a few weeks and then moving on. Male cheetah are territorial and typically form coalitions of two or more and attempt to gain ownership of an area in which they enjoy mating opportunities with a number of females.

It has been seen that the larger the coalition and the longer the members stick together, the more stable their tenure in an area. Cheetah actively avoid lions and will vacate an area in which a pride takes up residence. On average, cubs gain independence from their mother at around 18 months, by which time they are adept hunters able to fend for themselves.

Genetic Scare

In the 1980s, work by geneticists revealed that all of the continent's cheetah were perilously similar in terms of their genetic material. It was suggested that the species must have declined to an extremely low number in the past, such that all the survivors are still closely related. So close were the tested animals in genetic diversity that skin grafts were accepted by individuals which were from completely different parts of Africa - something you would expect only in laboratory-bred mice!

The fears from a survival point of view were that the species would not have enough genetic diversity to be able to adapt to changing environmental conditions, that birth defects would appear, and that a single disease might eliminate entire populations.

The processes of nature often work at an imperceptibly slow pace and nobody is sure whether the limited genetic material does indeed represent a real threat to cheetah. In the twenty odd years since the information came to light, there has been no dramatic loss of cheetah anywhere on the continent. They continue to survive in most of the larger protected areas containing open savanna, and birth defects in captivity as well as in the wild are extremely rare.

Today, there are thought to be some 12 000 cheetah in Africa¹s wild places. They are most threatened in the northern parts of their African range and are all but extinct in south-west Asia.

Where to see Cheetah at CCAfrica lodges

Cheetah can be seen from just about all of the CCAfrica properties, but
viewing is perhaps best on the open plains of the Serengeti-Mara in East Africa. Visitors to Kichwa Tembo,  Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Grumeti and Klein's Camp are regularly treated to views of these remarkable predators on the hunt. In southern Africa, Phinda is renowned for its brilliant cheetah viewing, while Nxabega and Sandibe in Botswana's Okavango Delta enjoy frequent encounters.

Further Reading

Estes, R.D. 1991. The Behaviour Guide to African Mammals Wake Forest,
USA, and Russel Friedman Books, South Africa.
Hunter, L. 1997. "The Cheetah: racing towards extinction or adaptable
specialist?".
In: Africa Environment & Wildlife 5 (6):58-65

Posted: Mammals by CC Africa, Date: 21 November 2006