The cheetah family at breakfast.
Cheetahs are the fastest land animal and they depend entirely on their speed to hunt. The cheetah kill is one of the most spectacular sights on the plains. As spectacular as it is, it attracts a lot of attention. Every scavenger and free-loader and even predator in the area sees it notes it and may come to steal it.
One day just driving along the back roads in Kruger we come across this commotion in the bush on our left and lo and behold it’s a cheetah family. We found mom and her 2 cubs gobbling down their kill in thick bush. This is not really a place you usually see a cheetah kill since they are speed hunters and need space to get to speed and make a kill. But it seems, fortunately for them the impala ran in there to escape and got taken down. A safe place to eat surrounded by bush on all sides and not even a vulture had spotted them eating yet.
We settled down and watched the cheetah family truly enjoy a nice breakfast. There were no thieves around. Despite that, Mom was always on the lookout. Her two adolescent kids were not concerned with anything but the meat in front of them and as teenagers typically do, they ignored everyone. Cheetahs also rarely move their kills any distance since they have to be quick to eat it before the hyenas come by or worse, the bigger cats. Fast food has a whole new meaning for cheetahs.
Fast as they are cheetahs have no other defence but speed and so the need for eating quickly before stronger animals challenge them for the ownership of the food. So cheetahs have to hunt and eat and get it over with. Otherwise, they could very well lose the kill altogether.
