African safari visitors always hope to see the big five animals. I think Sweetwater is probably the place where you are most likely to see them all. The big five being lion, elephant, cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros.
But there are many other spectacular animals and this cheetah has to be high up on most peoples list.
This fellow was relaxing early one morning. He looks well fed and there is blood on his cheek so I guess he had eaten already.
The best cheetah sightings were in Masai Mara but we also saw cheetah at Sweetwater and several other places.
Third down on the right is a Sweetwater cheetah that had just brought down a warthog. Breakfast is just visible in front of him.
Gazelle and Impala continued to walk past him, sometimes less than fifty yards away. They were very wary of course, but it did seem rather incongruous to be aware of his presence yet still close the distance between themselves and him.
Perhaps they thought, so long as he had food to eat, he was no direct threat to them. We saw several kills during our safari and in most cases the problem for the predator was defending his kill from other scavengers and predators.
We saw several kills following which jackals and hyaena would harry lions and cheetah who had taken an animal. On almost every occasion the scavengers got what they were after.
On just one occasion we watched a cheetah bring down a zebra and keep the kill to himself, fighting off all comers.
Amboseli National Park was one of our top three destinations, alongside Sweetwater and Masai Mara.
.jpg)
