06/10/2023
One of the criteria for the success of male cheetahs is the ability to establish and maintain territory. If there are coalitions in the area, it is more difficult for a loner to hold the territory, and he becomes a floater. The key to the success of a singleton is the strength and ability to protect his territory from other loners, driving them away. Males deal with competitors very aggressively – they attack, and if the intruder did not run away, he could get seriously injured in a fight. This partly explains the short life expectancy of young males – about 3 years. Jaziri, a male born and brought up by Amani in the northern part of the Mara, firmly settled in Sopa a year ago, and within a year drove out Olanyuani, a male who had lost his coalition-mate in July 2021. The territories of the females overlap with those of the males, and some individuals get to know each other well. Recently in Sopa we observed two females and a male within 1,5 km: Siligi, which spends most of her time in the Serengeti, Nashipai and Jaziri. It is interesting that on the same day, but at a distance from each other, Siligi and Jaziri actively marked objects and often climbed termite mounds, examining the area, and Jaziri also called loudly. The next day, we found Jaziri with Nashipai, and he delicately and uncertainly followed her, and the female made no attempt to leave the male. On this day, Siligi watched the couple from afar. She is well acquainted with Jaziri, as they have met before. On the third day, the situation changed: Jaziri lost interest in Nashipai, but did not let her leave. When she managed to move away at 100m and lie down on a mound, the male approached her with very specific intentions – now she was not a mating partner, but a territorial competitor. Jaziri attacked Nashipai in the same manner as the males: he walked around with a howl and periodically pounced. The female fought back and assumed a pose of submission, and after a series of attacks, the male left her alone and mover away. Since Jaziri sniffed her resting-places without flehmen response (an olfactory mechanism for identifying the reproductive state of females based on pheromones in the female’s urine or genitals), Nashipai was not in estrus, but the males are not always ready to give up, and keep the female hostage for at least a full day. The receptivity I cheetahs lasts for 3 days, and Jaziri may have missed his chance to mate with Siligi that time, while following Nashipai. However, the female will come in estrus within a month and will actively advertise her state of readiness for breeding, leaving messages for the male by scent marking. And then very likely they will succeed.
