cheetahs movement in the crater

We have four (4) cheetahs that dominate the whole floor since two years ago after having one male dominating strictly the Munge river area disappeared and we ended up with one dominant female believed the mother of the rest of the three with one female her cub dependent now and two of them they become real expert on catching these Scrub Hares and make them their main diet and the two brothers that dominate the whole caldera their main diet id Thomson Gazelles because of their power combination and make it easy for them.

The alpha female quite surprisingly she brought down a full grown Grant Gazelle which i have witnessed the two brothers could not hand that even though they brought their power together. The cheetahs they are very brave with the life style compare to any cheetah from other places due to the high concentration of about 400 hyenas down into the caldera and about 70-80 Lions and from the other side the natural boundary of the caldera rim also the thick Northern Highlands Forest which is not their favourite due to absence of their prey animals and on the southwest to the northeast of the caldera conquered by the Nilotic ethnic group of Maasai about 60,000 and make them to be like in an island hence very loos of genetic diversity.

With the help of this attached map it will give perfect illustration of these cheetahs' movements in this famous Ngorongoro Caldera 13th may`09; At about 08H00 it was a cloudy and windy chilled morning with some few sun patches on the floor of the crater on the bottom of the crater by the Seneto Descent road junction towards Mandusi swamp and Lake Magadi we came across the single female cheetah leaking herself and not doing much because of the weather and her healthy body she seems like she had a nice big meal the night before after spending almost an hour and we drove off.

At about 09H17 after driving on the Lake Magadi road just about less than a kilometre we came across another female well known with a limping leg and very faint scar on her left front leg and the mother of the first female and two brothers just patrolling around that place looking for her favourite food the scrub hares and kept her going close to her daughter to the junction of Seneto junction without any success. At about 11H14 we were at theNgoitokitok Spring which is the picnic site having the bush breakfast stop with about 30 hippos congregate close to the tree which gave the name of the famous western Grumeti river camp next to us there was a Great Commorant looks like he was chocked with something and tried to regurgitate it and guess what? Came out five live little tilapia fish and ate them again and he had them in his stomach for more than half an hour we spent with him before regurgitate them and still alive!!

20th may`09; Just at the bottom of the Seneto Descent female road on the northern of it there is a dry pond we came across the female cheetah the daughter of the only female cheetah in the crater about 100 metres away from the road just relaxing at about 08H57 and just after that area about a kilometre away we came across the two dominance males of the whole crater close by the Lake Magadi shore patrolling their territory which was just few minutes away from that female and after half an hour they decided to relax after finding a nice vintage spot and just after another a kilometre and a half at about 10H15 we came across the female cheetah with a scar on her left front leg at the junction between Lake Magadi and Ngotokitok swamp about two meters away from the road and she was just sniffing around and in a blank of an eye she scared the scrub hare out of the bush and in a second after couple of nice manoeuvres from that hare but it did not help and it ended up with a female cheetah to have a quick snack for that morning.

UP TO DATE; These two dominant males frequent the Seneto descent road and Lerai forest up to Gorigor swamp for several weeks and their main food was Thomson Gazelles still they were not success in all the attempts, and still more to come for the rest of July!!!!

Posted: Mammals by Edmond Isaac, Date: 3 July 2009