Safari Sweetwater Kenya

This Sweetwater cheetah was a very skinny animal before the chase. His back half gave him the appearance of a half starved animal, but once he bought down this young zebra, he set about it with a vengeance and ate practically the whole animal at one sitting.

By the time he was half way through, his belly had become so distended it looked like he could barely support himself.

Others thought so too, and occasionally he was challenged by other animals who thought they might be able to get a free bite at it.

He immediately and strongly reacted and the other animals and birds left him alone. At first he dragged the carcass out into the open, presumably so he could see any competition approaching.

After the cheetah he had devoured around three quarters of the zebra, he spent the next ten minutes dragging the remains into the shade of some bushes and small trees, about a quarter of a mile away.

That's the last we saw of him. I presume he had a nap to digest the first course, before finishing off what remained.

Overall we were with this guy from just before the kill until around forty minutes later. It was quite remarkable how, when he crouched down in the relatively short grass, he virtually disappeared.

Even with very good binoculars and knowing exactly where he was, just a few yards away, it was easy to lose him. One way to locate him was to watch the impala and gazelle around. They always knew exactly where he was and all we had to do was follow the direction of their gaze to pick him up again.