October Cheetah Report

By: AJ (Okonjima field and research co-ordinator):

COCO SPUD HAMMER & BONES - AKA ‘The Siblings’ -
On the 18th of November the 4 will have been in the park for 6 months and their progress has been amazing!
Although they are still not killing properly some other instinctive ‘cheetah’ characteristic behaviour has become more obvious.

they don’t stay with kills that long anymore compared to what they use to do Recently the longest was about 42 hours instead of 48 to 60 hrs which is very unlike cheetah behaviour!
They are going for younger and injured animals instead of chasing anything and everything in their sight.
They are spending most of their time up in the northern part of the reserve where most of the game has concentrated during these last few dry months, instead of staying around the more ‘safe and familiar’ main road areas and where there is more human activity.
The internal workings/hierarchy of the group has not changed since Frankie was killed by the leopard and Hammer is still the dominant cat supported by Bones.
A few times they have stumbled on kills that where not made by them and would eat their fill and then leave, which has not often been recorded before in cheetah behaviour. Cheetah, kill and eat fresh and usually do not return or scavenge. They usually never steal prey from a more dominant predator. Whether the leopards were not there at the time of the discovery or whether they moved off, because of the size of the sibling group, I do not know . . . yet ?!

TONGS -
is another success story! She is the one single female, we often find, but never on a kill yet has a full stomach most of the time. We have also noticed that the cheetahs in bigger groups push off single cheetahs from their kills. I witnessed a duiker killed by Tongs and then she lost it to Zen, Zippy and Toby, who then lost it to a Brown Hyena, who found no challenge in stealing it from the 3. So it seems she prefers killing small animals and never stays with the kills for long.

All these kills obviously creates meals for all the other smaller predators in the park – which is a true symbiosis @ work !

CHARLIE & TRISH Are unfortunately still struggling a bit with their killing technique. They are hunting, but show the same problem with the killing technique as the siblings show at times. They bring down animals, but struggle to kill them ?! Not sure why ? None of us have found many kills done by the 2 of them, but the ones we have seen show that it is apparent they are not biting the neck at the right place. They don’t go for the jugular, but bite the tough skin higher on the neck . . .

The rest we see very little of and all we can report on is that they are doing great and their condition looks good. The only down side is that we have not seen them actually make a kill, so whether their technique is better or not we can only speculate about ?

CYCLOPS has only been seen along the reserve fence twice in the last month – which is a good sign for he now seems to prefer the area in the ‘Poort’, (eastern & more mountainous area) The Villa and the central sections, which are the more open and savannah areas. Cyclops is doing well – one eye only and we are all very proud of how he has adapted to his new environment.

ZEN, ZIPPY & TOBY you only find if they are on a kill. Any other sightings – they take off before you get close to them. They are nearly ready to go to a new reserve . . . . The hunt is on for a new & safe home for them !

Main effort being made by HAMMER - with BONES joining in every now and then. The kudu bull actually got up after battling the siblings for over an hour, but was found dead the next day 14km from the original attack and all 4 siblings were lying around the dead bull.