July 19, 2025
Cheetahs are beautiful and popular models for both beginners and professional photographers. But let’s think about the difference between the model in the human world and the animal world. For a photo model, posing all day for the best shot is not an easy task. However, after a hard day at work, the “model” goes home, where he/she is safe and where a delicious dinner and a full rest to restore energy await him/her. In the wild, food and rest are not guaranteed for the “model”, but are critical to its survival.
Unlike conservancies, where there are mainly 2 safaris (morning and evening), in the Reserve tourists are active full day till late evening. Animals need to find time and opportunity to hunt, eat and rest without disturbance. Moreover, daytime sleep is vital for a cheetah, especially for a female with cubs, in order to be vigilant at night when other predators are active. Fatigue and lack of sleep can cost cheetahs their lives.
A cheetah in its natural habitat has many tasks: finding prey, mates, safe places to eat prey, resting and raising offspring. Among predators, the cheetah is the most vulnerable, and many animals often affect its well-being. For example, elephants, buffaloes, zebras, ostriches, warthogs, jackals, and baboons often drive cheetahs away from their resting places and prey. And hyenas, lions and less often leopards, in addition, kill cheetahs. Therefore, it is not easy for a cheetah to survive in nature.
By observing cheetahs in the Mara ecosystem, where tourism is active year-round, we found that in order to be successful here, cheetahs must be tolerant of the presence of tourist cars. Cheetahs, tolerant to the vehicles are able to rest properly, hunt productively, reproduce and raise offspring successfully. Cheetahs from outside Mara (from the unprotected lands and from the Serengeti) are shy and show increased anxiety when cars appear. However, for the cheetahs to succeed, we all need to help them. When you arrive in the Mara and meet a cheetah, remember that there are only 7,000 of them left on the entire African continent, and that you may have met the oldest male, or a young and inexperienced female who has yet to contribute to the population of the ecosystem. And each individual is very important for the entire species! It’s not hard to help a cheetah live and thrive: just help the rangers and follow these rules:
