Mike was roaming around the Mbezi river yesterday, in the fairly large “Leopard’s Bent” portion of the reserve. Indeed the entire reserve is so large that you can only visit portions of it every day, it takes well over a week to see most of the reserve once.
Mike knows that cheetahs and leopards love to hunt in or near dry river beds, as they give them the sort of hunting edge they need to take down a prey (the green around the rivers gives them cover, while the river sand gives them perfect traction to accelerate and bring down their target).
Well, Mike struck gold yesterday! A precious and unforgettable up-close cheetah sighting. Now for something as rare as this it is well worth flying around half the world! These two cheetahs are male, still very young, but they are now very relaxed around the vehicles, as they were born on the reserve (amazing news of 2013!) and hence got used to them from a youngest age onwards.
They had taken down a young kudu (they seem to have upgraded from impala), so their hunting skills are still improving and they are in no danger to go hungry, as they are now very successful in hunting. Their mother taught them well! (we have also seen her on a few occasions, she is now hopefully pregnant again).
Cheetahs are now extremely endangered, with only 2000-3000 estimated to be still living in the wild in Africa, and of those most of them in Namibia, so you can imagine the privilege it is to observe two cheetahs up close, in a country twice the size of France!
There are more and more cheetah sightings on our reserve (there were quasi none 5 years ago). One of the reasons is an extremely effective wildlife protection system, as well as the huge size of the reserve, and also perfect nature conditions (lots of water points, and lots of prey game). So we now see cheetahs on an almost weekly basis, sometimes very near the lodge. Fingers crossed that this trend continues and that their numbers will continue increasing. The density of cheetahs on this reserve is already much higher than on most other reserves, and our cheetahs all live freely and unassisted on the reserve, and roam freely around. And that is in my opinion the right way of doing it. Bush walking with tame cheetahs is not in my eyes! What you get here is up close sightings of some of the world’s most famous (and sadly often rarest) animals, in their own natural habitat.
Many thanks to Mike and the guests for providing these stunning shots. I wish I had been there myself! Lucky them. 🙂
