This fascinating coalition of the five male 143 Cheetahs was formed in The Masai Mara towards the end of December 2016. This is the largest male alliance in the history of Masai Mara. They have naturally become the center of attraction for the media, researchers and tourists in no time.
In the last three years I have seen them in each of my Masai Mara expeditions. So much so that if any of the guests on tour with me did not insist to stay and see them, I started avoiding them. The main reason being that more than half the tourists in Mara at any given time would be floating around these five cheetahs.
Lately they have become extremely bold and innovative with their hunting strategy. This year during the migration I saw them walking among thousands of wildebeests, one after another, as if they are satiated and had no plans to hunt, when suddenly in a fraction of a second, they make a turn, and in no time, two kills and two wildebeests end up becoming the feast. They moved fast and hardly kept anything for the scavengers, finishing everything as fast as they could just leaving the skin and bones behind.
Once the feast is over they often look for nearby water bodies to quench their thirst. It’s a visual treat to see them in line drinking water. If it’s a big meal that they have consumed, then its sleeping or relaxing time for a day or two.
In this November, we spent two days with them. As it was not migration time, there were not many wildebeests around. The first day we spotted them in the rain targeting a topi with its young fawn. Both of the topi turned out to be extremely lucky, and managed to escape.
Frequently in these kinds of situations there is bit of bullying that occurs among them. I was waiting for some action, and as expected, things heated up and two of them got into a flying fight in the rain. As usual one cheetah was on the scene playing a mediators role and brought things under control.
Once the irritabilities got sorted out, they rubbed their nose and necks, lied down for a while before continuing the journey. By then it was time for us to wind up the day’s activities too.
The next morning we were with the Black Rock pride; three lionesses and eight cubs. It was amazing to watch them playing on and around the rocks; the cubs giving a very hard time for their mothers. It had been a dream for me to see a lioness holding a cub and walking towards me, and this time around that dream turned into a reality right in front of my eyes. After that they moved into the bush once the sun moved upwards, and we moved from there.
That’s when we spotted the five stars again. They were targeting a group of resident wildebeests. It was a long wait. The moment the wildebeest spotted the Cheetahs’ presence, they started to run away. This cycle repeated again and again. In this scenario, we had two choices: take a chance to go for lunch and come back, or skip lunch and wait for the action.
We opted for the second one. Though it took hours for the Cheetah to get into action mode, we got a chance to witness the full sequence and managed to document it too. I have seen them hunting many times before, and often it takes a maximum of three to five minutes. But this time it took them more than 20 minutes to kill the wildebeest. The bizarre part was that, two of cheetahs got hold of the neck, one of them started to eat it from the back of the front leg and another one from the back of the back leg, while the fifth one was watching the surroundings. It was not at all an easy task for the cheetahs to manage the wildebeest for almost 15 minutes before it started to slow down. I felt sad, but at the end of the day that’s nature.
I was using a Nikon D5 along with a 400mm F2.8 and as second body Nikon D850 and 70-200mm. For the hunt I was using 400mm which has an amazing focus tracking; every moment of the hunt was documented in a perfect and controlled manner.
By then the vultures, foxes and hyenas started entering the scene. Thankfully it was a single hyena – comparatively a smaller one – and the cheetah chased him away in no time. It looks like he got a bit scared, then waited for his turn at a distance.
After an hour’s time we spotted a young male lion in a distance. Then all the eyes moved towards the lion. We expected more drama. The lion looked a bit suspicious about the full scene from a distance. Then he sat and watched them remotely for a while. The cheetahs were conscious too. But they kept eating till they finished as much as possible.
By then the lion had gained a bit more of confidence and started walking towards the cheetahs, and they ran away in a fraction of a second. Before the lion reached near the carcass, the vultures and the rest of the scavengers covered the scene and the lion walked away.
That’s when our guide, John rushed from there and all he said is “look at the rainbow”. There was a beautiful rainbow formation and the cheetahs were right below that. It was just for a short span, but we still managed to get couple of shots.
I’v got a lot more stories to share from the six-day long safari, but I’m saving that for another edition.
