Cheetah kill at Kalahari Plains Camp

Location:  Kalahari Plains Camp

Date:  26 July 2010

Observer: Russell Crossey

We had the most incredible cheetah experience on 26 July.

It began with lions calling around camp at dawn. We headed out hoping to find the two big pride males. Just after leaving camp we spotted an adult female cheetah and her small cub. The cub was very small and still had its honey badger-like pelage – just a few months old. This mimicry of the honey badger is thought to make potential predators confuse the helpless cub with a pugnacious badger.  The cub was full of fun and energy and charged back and forth, ambushing its mother. It could barely contain its excitement on the perfect Kalahari winter’s morning.

The sleek, waspish waist of the adult cheetah indicated that she was hungry.  She walked up a slight ridge and froze. The baby immediately took its cue and vanished from sight. A springbok ram was grazing contentedly about 50 metres to the north and on the downwind side.  The cheetah exploded from the cover of a small bush and stormed at the unsuspecting antelope.  The chase was over in seconds and when the dust settled, the cat had her jaws firmly clamped on the springbok’s throat while its limbs thrashed in vain. This all happened in the middle of a vast plain, not more than 50 metres from our vehicles.

Once the cheetah had suffocated the ram, she began the laborious task of dragging it toward the nearest cover – a small green shepherd’s bush about 40 metres away. She was very alert and kept dropping the carcass and scanning the surroundings. About ten metres from the bush she found herself besieged by a trio of shrieking pied crows. She dropped the carcass and retreated to the bush and kept a close eye on proceedings.

When nothing appeared as a result of the crows’ alarming, she began calling the cub with a high-pitched bird-like sound. The cub came running across the plain to join its mother. It was at least an hour before the female was satisfied that the coast was clear. She returned to drag the carcass to the bush and the two fed for the rest of the day.

The dawn was greeted by a cacophony of excited jackal calls alerting us to the fact that the carcass had been discovered by other predators. We arrived just in time to see a leopard leaving the scene – apparently he had appropriated the carcass sometime that night.