The morning of July 8, 2007 started as any other. We were doing morning observations for the Mara River clan. On our way to begin a prey census we happened upon three young cheetahs. We stopped about 20 meters from them in order to record their location. We keep records of locations of carnivores we see in the park. We stopped to record the location and watched the cheetahs for a few minutes. Then curiosity got the best of the cats and they approached the car.
After chewing on the tires a bit, one decided to investigate my door. It was scratching at the door, nearly sticking its head in my window. The cheetahs then proceeded to the hood of the truck. At one point the third cheetah tried to jump onto the hood, but there was not enough room and it fell back down. They sat contently on the hood for a few minutes, while we in the car were in disbelief this was actually happening.
They then went onto the roof of the truck and began chewing on our tracking equipment. This was not acceptable, so we had to scold them to stop chewing on our stuff. They did not listen well. Eventually they got bored and hopped down. We did not get bored and would probably still be sitting there if they had not decided to move on. Truly a surreal experience.






I have links for video of the cheetahs on our truck on my website. Click the photos link to navigate to them.
http://www.msu.edu/user/fliesand/index.htm
Hello to Carolyn Kolar. I hope you stay interested in cheetahs, but don't forget about hyenas!
6 comments:
BEST DAY EVER.
Soundtrack for the post:
Track 2: Best Day Ever
I'm jealous of whoever left the Anonymous post...but I'm guessing that is the tune that Andy was singing in his head on the day of this adventure.
Hi Andy, I love the pictures. And it was funny that the cheetahs were eating some of the car. In first grade I did a report of cheetahs. I want to learn about hyenas too. Were the hyenas scared of you or nice to you? Have fun in Africa. From Carolyn
That is utterly *adorable*.
Hi Carolyn. Hyenas and cheetahs are usually scared of people in this area. As long as you are in a vehicle, they won't attack and usually don't run away either. If you step outside the car though, they will usually run away.
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