06/23/2022
Female cheetahs in the wild fail to raise their first litter. To be successful, they need experience, which sometimes takes 6 years to acquire. Interestingly, some female cheetahs give birth to 2, maximum 4 cubs, while others give birth to 5-6 cubs, and this trend continues throughout life. The most critical are the first 3-5 months, when most of the cubs die from various causes, including predation. But cheetahs at any age are vulnerable to larger and more successful predators such as lions, hyenas and leopards. And although hyenas do not attack adult cheetahs, they often take their prey, which is critical for a nursing female cheetah, since she must take care of her offspring. Loss of prey within a week can lead to reduced milk supply and weakened young. Therefore, while the cubs are small, the females first feed them, and then eat themselves in order to maintain an interest in hunting. In early October 2021, at the age of 2 years and 4 months daughter of Kisaru from the last litter gave birth to 7 cubs. In the first 4 months she lost 6 cubs, but was successfully raising one son. By 7 months old, she had trained him to hunt and kill prey on his own. For example, on May 28, she started hunting for an adult male Thomson’s gazelle, and her son joined in and independently not only caught up, but also strangled the gazelle while his mother watched him. The cub itself dragged the prey into the tall grass, where the female and the cub ate in turn, alternating in scanning the area for potential ganger. The ability to successfully hunt for a lone male is extremely important for survival in an independent life. Unfortunately, within an hour, a hyena appeared and took the prey, despite of the female’s efforts to chase it away. The next day, Nelemek hunted again and this time the family ate well. As the daughter of a successful female, Kisaru, and the granddaughter of one of the most successful females in the Mara, Amani, Nelemek has done a wonderful job and gave hope that the cub will grow up to be a competent hunter. However, despite the constant monitoring and assistance of the rangers of 4 conservancies, in the early morning of June 19, 8-month-old cub died. A detailed autopsy revealed that he had 28 wounds on both side of the body, of which 2 were fatal, including a broken skull and the neck. The nature of the wounds showed that they were inflicted by one or more large predators – lions, which often bite through the skull of a cheetah when attacking. The lioness was within 100 meters at the time the cub was discovered. Nelemek did not see what happened to her cub, she was in the forest by the road, behind the cub, which, apparently, was frightened off by the predators. For 2 days, the female constantly called the cub and circled in the area, returning to the place where apparently she was with him for the last time. On the first evening, two lionesses appeared at that place, and Nelemek escaped from them into the forest across the field. To be continued.
