Cheetah Walking on a Safari

One morning in May 2015, we set out on an early morning walk with two cheetah brothers, Floppy and Hunter… What!!?? How!!??

Well, let me explain… On a few of our safaris, we stay at Tshukudu Game Reserve, which is a 12,400HA game reserve on the western boundary of Kruger Park. There, they have three cheetah siblings who grew up on the farm… Now, cheetah are very interesting animals when it comes to human interaction. You can bring cheetah up with humans and they will still keep up their normal routine as they would do in the wild, without the snarling and spitting at humans part. All three of these cheetah hunts for themselves within the reserve and are completely self-sustaining. This is VERY important to me because lion and leopard are impossible to rehabilitate like this and end up being kept in captivity or worse, sold for hunting purposes.

With this in mind, walking with these amazing creatures in their natural environment is just amazing and I, personally never get tired or bored of this!

So, off we go… Now, the boys were hungry and very alert to prey so we knew they were, given the chance, going to try to hunt. We walked with them, listened with them, watched them and were treated to a morning we will never forget. Of course, being cheetah they ran off in pursuit of a few impala and we just couldn’t keep up, but later that afternoon we learnt that they had indeed killed an impala and were happily munching down.

I believe a safari should include an interaction with an African animal that is sustainable and contributes to the well-being of everything in that animal’s ecosystem. With these cheetah, I know we are just part of their environment and nothing more, which makes this opportunity even sweeter.

Check out Moriti’s Kruger National Park travel guide for more info on this awesome game reserve.

Don’t forget to hit me up for an awesome private Kruger safari sometime and come and see this awesome reserve for yourself.

See you soon!!