Cheetah Brothers

While out for the day with Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris^Schedule, our guide spotted these two male Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) under a tree. They were marking their territory. They were estimated to be about two years old. At that age female Cheetahs are living a solitary existence, but male siblings will often form a coalition for life.

Cheetahs have the highest hunting success rate among big cats, mostly because of their speed (being the fastest land animal on the planet, with a top speed of almost 70 mph), but they do have better stamina than other cats, and are also believed to take factors like wind direction into account. Their success rate is up to 50%, compared to about 33% for leopards, and less than 20% for lions. But larger cats and hyenas steel over 10% of their catch. On one occasion, we saw a mother of four adolescents take down a gazelle in the middle of the day, eventually to be chased off by the vultures.

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