Cheetah madness! Hopkinton/Bow Student Blog #12
Zach Drotos
Blog 12
The following blog post is created by a Hopkinton/Bow High School student from New Hampshire, who is on program with Original Wisdom, partnering with Nature Guide Training, on a 3-week South African Ecology & Culture program at Djuma Game reserve in the Sabi Sands region of the Greater Kruger Area (July 2015). In addition to exposure to ecology and culture, we have sponsored a local South African student on scholarship for the entire program (see Blog 3# Interview with Mhlavasi) and will attend 2 days at Mhlavasi’s school, Acorns to Oaks, where our students interact with the local students and help to teach them some basic skills in spatial thinking and use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to create online maps and stories with a spatial component. Our overall goals include facilitating connections with self, others, and the natural world.
All was calm in the camp after lunch. Our stomachs stretched to the max, we began to fall victim to a state of “food-coma.” Before any of us could make it back to our rooms for our mid-day nap, we turned our heads towards a sudden disturbance. One of our guides, Diana came bursting into the camp with a hop in her step – she said something quickly to Lee and Kersey, who ran out of their khaya and helped her to round all of us up and onto the vehicles. We were prepared for anything, this is South Africa after all. Our guides drove agressivly down the dirt roads, reaching record speeds compared to the slow bumble we normally drive on the bumpy dirt roads – but we we still perhaps only achieving 20 k per hour. All the while we were “out-of-the-loop” as to what we were driving after, but based on the body language of our guides, we knew the animal was a rarety. We suspected it could be either wild dogs or a cheetah. Both of which are highly uncommon, especialy in Djuma. We heard, “Skankaan” on the radio, but did not know what that meant.
With adreniline running through our veins, our vehicle came to an abrupt halt, and disapointment covered the faces of our guides. They admitted that the animal we were after was a cheetah – a female had been sighted near our northern boundary. The reason that we could no longer continue on our chase was because the animal had changed its course into another property to the north that we could not traverse on. We were all busy processing the realization that we might not get another chance to see a cheetah in the wild with only a few days left on the program… However; T.I.A. This Is Africa, a place where we are to expect the unexpected. Our knight in shining armor came in riding his mechanical horse: Mike, the owner of Activating Africa and former Ecologist for the Sabi Sands, came bumbling up in his land cruiser – he could traverse to the north! He filled his vehicle with students; people were jumping out of our vehicle as it drove closer to the others, hoping to secure their spot on the one vehicle allowed to move over the border. I and several others were within a hairs width away from the car when we were told there was no more room. With our heads hung down, we were forced to return to our vehicle and wait – hoping the cheetah would not move away and that we would also get a chance to see her. We watched in jealousy as the other vehicle drove out of sight.
Five minutes passed and we heard nothing from them over the radio. When the radio did finally sound we were expecting to hear only that the group had arrived at the cheetah sighting. Yes, they had found the cheetah, but we also recieved news that we had been given permission to go onto the other property by one of the land owners that was laready in the cheetah sighting! Our moods were hightened considerably as we headed into the previously forbidden zone and toward the cat of our dreams! Mike guided us to our best approach and as we rounded the corner, we made visual of the crown-jewel laying in the shade of a tree.
As we examinend this magestic being, Lee took the time to teach us a little bit about the cheetah. Their body is built for speed. Free floating shoulder blades, perminantly retracted claws, and a small head allow the cheetah to accelerate from zero to sixty mph in three seconds, and reach a top speed of sixty-five mph! What an amazing evolutionary feat this animal has acomplished!
We watched her roll on her back, changing her angle-of-view, to keep watch for anything that could hurt her. Cheetahs may be fast, but that also makes them light, and their build is no competition for almost any other predator in the bush – making the cheetah very low in the hierarchy of predators and they are very vulnerable. She maintained her constant alertness even through her cat-naps. After sitting with her for a while, it was time to return back to camp to get ready for our evening drive.
Photos by Sandy Willmore
Edited by Kersey Lawrence
