I’m back from the most incredible experience in the Mara Triangle (Kenya). Between a million wildebeest (literally), lion kills and cheetah kills right in front of us and the mind-blowing expanse of the Mara landscape – it’ll take me some time to find my bearings again (good luck to me for walking back into that […]
Tag: cheetah
Tails and Horns
If you’ve ever tried to photograph a cheetah hunt, then you would know that it’s over in a flash, and you often just can’t track the movement changes of the chase well enough. During our recent Wild Eye Great Migration Photographic Safari in the Mara Triangle (Kenya), we pulled into a cheetah sighting just as […]
Cheetah don’t overheat during hunts
In a 4,500 hectare cheetah rehabilitation camp in the middle of Namibia, researchers observe the large, spotted carnivores as they readjust to wild life. This week one such researcher, physiologist Robyn Hetem from the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, used her observations to disprove a theory about cheetah that has been treated as common […]
Scientists: lions need funding not fences
Fences are not the answer to the decline in Africa’s lions, according to a new paper in Ecology Letters. The new research directly counters an earlier controversial study that argued keeping lions fenced-in would be cheaper and more effective in saving the big cats. African lion (Panthera leo) populations across the continent have fallen dramatically: […]
Blind, starving cheetahs: the new symbol of climate change?
The world’s fastest land animal is in trouble. The cheetah, formerly found across much of Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, has been extirpated from at least 27 countries and is now on the Red List of threatened species. Namibia holds by far the largest remaining population of the speedy cat. Between 3,500 […]
A Cheetah Can Get You Without Hitting Top Speed
Cheetahs may be the world’s fastest sprinters, but it is their blinding acceleration—faster than a Lamborghini’s—and their phenomenal athleticism, rather than their famous top speed of over 60 miles per hour (96.5 kilometers per hour), that is the true key to their hunting success in the wild, according to the results of a ground-breaking, high-tech […]
Life is a safari vehicle. You just never know!
Late April, early May heralds the start of the impala rutting season in Southern Africa. Males evaluate each other, openly; establish a pecking order; settle disputes with fluid strength and in need, make their point at horn’s-end. To the victor a harem of willing ladies…. Late April, early May also ushers in mostly cooler weather, […]
Asiatic cheetahs: on the road to extinction?
Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are unique among large cats. They have a highly specialized body, a mild temperament, and are the fastest living animals on land. Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, the Asiatic subspecies, is unique among cheetahs and the only member of five currently living subspecies to occur outside of Africa. Listed as Critically Endangered on the […]