INTO THE BUSH AFRICA SAFARIS: AMAZING CHEETAH BEHAVIOUR IN MAASAI MARA

Saturday, 18 January 2014

AMAZING CHEETAH BEHAVIOUR IN MAASAI MARA - AMANITOS

AMAZING CHEETAH BEHAVIOUR-THREE AMANITOS IN MAASAI MARA

After spending my morning and mid morning hours with the lions,I drove towards double crossing area in the Mara where a friend and a guide from Mara Intrepids had seen three cheetahs in the morning hours.

The cheetahs are big cubs of almost 2 years of age,who they belong to one cheetah called Amani who again she has one, 3.5 month old cub now.To put my experience across to you two are boys and one is a girl,I will call the boys Amanitos and the girl Amanita.With the cheetahs,the 2 boys will work and live together in a coalition but the girl would have to be on her own.

And today it was the day that Amanita made her mind and she took off without the boys discovering of her disappearance. It was at mid day when I approached the area where they were seen and before getting there we found one cheetah (female) on her kill,the lunch was a baby Thomson’s gazelle.We had about 10 minutes with her and I was not certain on who she was,but I knew she was of the same age and she looked like Amanita.

We took off to find the Amani’s cubs(The three ),but 2 minutes of drive from where the beautiful female was feeding, I saw 2 male cheetahs running up and down as they give out a contact call,Ooh no,I could not believe when I discovered that the girl on a kill was Amanita and the boys calling were Amanitos calling their sister!!!

After a short time they spotted her and they very quickly head towards where she was enjoying her meal,for me to capture the whole experience I took off too and had the best position not to miss the reunion of the three siblings.

It was such a life time experience that one would live to tell, they were welcomed by their sister, all squabbled for the kill, Amanita gave them space for she had enough, not that much!

And as soon as they finished the killed they moved to my car for a shade,and after some time they took off cleaning each other’s face,one of the boys kissed Amanita and he seemed to be asking her,’’why did you have to leave us when we were having our afternoon nap, but anyway thanks for the lunch it was such a delicious meal”

Wasn’t it awesome sighting to see Amanita taking off only to be got again before she was far? It is her time to split away from the boys and move on with her life.

I left the three on the plains of the Mara,what was the next move? It would be fascinating to know how they are gonna behave in the next few hours to few days.Every day is a new day for me as a safari guide!