Have you ever been in a dangerous situation where you felt that you were lucky to be alive afterwards?
Yep, it’s happened to me a few times in my life…but never like this! Can you imagine the scene of a bunch of cheetahs surrounding a baby impala, only to just leave it completely alone? Not only did they not eat this cute little guy, they actually licked it and played around with it…like it was one of the guys.
Obviously cheetahs are not usually such friendly animals…but this freakishly rare scene does happen!
When I think about friendly animals, my mind quickly jumps to soft kitties, Staffordshire terriers with their smiling faces, maybe some well trained horses….but cheetahs? While many South African TV watchers are familiar with the relatively tamed cheetahs of the Spier Wine Estates Cheetah programme, a wild cheetah whom has to fight for his food is something altogether different.
If you were to run up to a cheetah you would most likely get munched on very quickly. In normal situations impala and cheetah don’t get along…indeed the impala is one of the cheetahs favourite snacks…yumyum.
So why the hell did these cheetah simply leave this little buck alone?
Well it seems that because of the cheetahs feeding habits of hunting in the mornings and the late afternoons, it just so happened to coincide with their rest period between eating. For a cheetah to run and kill its prey at full pace it requires a boat load of energy, which is why on their “downtime” they become more passive…especially if they already have full bellies. Well this is just a hypothesis that is being bounced around online. Any way you look at it this baby impala is super lucky to still be alive and kicking. Maybe it’s not a case of the cheetah being friendly animals and more that they were just full LOL.
Can you imagine how scared he must have been sitting with these big kitties as they licked him and put their paws on his head…frightening stuff indeed! It’s a bit of a Bruce the Shark scene if you ask me hehehe.
So please guys and girls don’t get any ideas about wild cheetah being friendly animals just yet….they deserve respect at all times. RWOAR!
This little impala was lucky as buck!
Duncs.
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