Eland vs Cheetah

It was a beautiful cool morning here at Kwandwe, and so I offered a nice walk to my guests. We set out for a Grade 1 walk looking at the smaller things in an open area. We saw fantastic general game including Black wildebeest, eland, springbok, warthog, zebra and fantastic bird life. Just before we got back to the vehicle one of my guests yelled "Cheetah"! and about 150m away were indeed two Cheetah! We went straight back to the vehicle so we could get a closer view. As we got there an Aardwolf came running out of the bush and made the Cheetah turn their heads. However, they weren't very interested. After a while, a large herd of eland approached about 100m away from the two males. As soon as they saw the two Cheetah stand up and notice them, the Eland froze. But this didn't stop the Cheetah from attempting to catch an Eland calf. The wind wasn't right and so the cheetah moved around swiftly to get downwind from the Eland, but they had already spotted the cats and were fully aware. Then all of a sudden the Cheetah took off at full speed! All we could see was dust.. but they were definatly after the youngest calf. Then it all came to a stand still. Dead quiet.. so we assumed a missed attempt. We went to investigate...  and there were 2 Cheetah panting heavily in the shade of a tree with nothing. Eventually 3 Eland adult cows decided they wanted revenge and darted back towards the Cheetah. The Cheetah didn't hang around long enought o find out what would have happened. Eland 1 Cheetah 0

Posted: Kwandwe by William Moss, Date: 2 October 2007