Who's the Boss?

We had a pretty good morning up to this point. Having already seen a herd of at least 600 Buffalo, six big male Elephant’s and not to mention numerous birds, we were in really high spirits. Then the call came in, CHEETAH! This would make a good morning a great morning and we were only about 5 minutes’ drive away!

We followed Simon’s directions and found a female Cheetah relaxing next his vehicle. We were about 100 meters or so from Main dam. After two or three minutes she decided to move towards the dam and we instantly noticed her intensions. She was using the cover of the tree line to scope out the potential prey on offer. Main dam usually has a fair amount of general game in the area, including Impala, which would probably be what she was looking for. Unfortunately she was spotted by a herd of much larger Waterbuck. The Waterbuck started snorting in alarm, letting her know that she had been seen. With her cover blown she moved on towards the dam. The Waterbuck however started advancing on her, snorting in disgust. She knew that the attention she had brought on herself meant there would be no meal here. Also, if any larger predators were in the area, they would come to investigate the disruption and she could be in trouble.

We sat patiently anticipating her next move. For some or other reason she decided to move east along the bank of the dam, right towards the Waterbuck. She was keeping a respectable distance when one of the female Waterbuck approached her. The Cheetah lowered her head in an aggressive posture, but the Waterbuck was not intimidated and followed through in full charge. She reacted instinctively and made a quick getaway from the much larger Waterbuck. The Waterbuck charged for at least 100 meters sending the female Cheetah away knowing who was in charge.

Darren Roberts-York


All photo's and video taken with a Nikon Coolpix P510