Friendly cheetahs, lucky impala

[Jenn]

Comment: I got this in an email from a friend. I am a doubter, so thought to
check it on your website:

Photographer Michel Denis-Huot, who captured these amazing pictures on
safari in Kenya's Masai Mara in October last year, said he was astounded by
what he saw:

"These three brothers, Cheetahs, have been living together since they left
their mother at about 18 months old,' he said. 'On the morning we saw them,
they seemed not to be hungry, walking quickly but stopping sometimes to
play together. 'At one point, they met a group of impala who ran away. But
one youngster was not quick enough and the brothers caught it easily'".

These extraordinary scenes followed.

[ParaDiddle]

Shortly after these photos were taken, the momma cheetah arrived and growled, "You boys better stop playing with your food." The rest of the pics on the disk were not nearly as cute.

- P

[A Turtle Named Mack]

I imagine that like housecats, cheetahs will hunt sometimes even when they are not hungry - it is good practice, and a lot of fun (well, for the cheetahs, the impala don't know if the cheetahs are hungry or not). If they are not hungry, it is unlikely they will kill, if only because it is the most dangerous part of the hunt.

Also, a cheetah can totally exhaust its glycogen reserves in an attack and be utterly unable to bring down prey if the chase goes a bit too long for it. At that point, they are not very dangerous until their muscles recover. However, these cats do not appear to be panting as hard as they would if they had just completed a full chase.

[me, no really]

The little impala, growing up with it's new found cheetah friends, learned to naturally trust large cats. It would play regularly with it's new friends and trustingly approach other large cats to play with them too. This did not end well.

me

[Der Induktionator]

Sadly it isn't nearly as cute if I decide to have a little snuggle with my food before a meal.

[nonnieyrissa]

You can see the "Oh NFBSK!" expression in his eyes when the one buddy is tasting him.

[obxbaby54]

I dunno ... No. 2 looks pretty photo-shopped to me.

[JoeBentley]

The pictures are accurate, but tell an incomplete story

The basic facts are true. The pictures are real and were taken by photographer Michel Denis-Huot in Kenya's Masai Mara in October.

But the entire sequences shows the 3 cheetahs actually catching and killing the impala after playing with it. An edited version of the photos were published in the Daily Mail with the happy ending twist.

http://translate.google.com/translat...&sl=auto&tl=en

[Dropbear]

Amusingly the neck licking picture (the 3rd one above) is the last before things go pear shaped for the impala.

Dropbear

[llewtrah]

This has been recorded in young lions as well (there's some good footage of it shown on TV sometimes). In inexperienced big cats, if the prey stops behaving in a prey-like manner, the hunt-kill instinct gets confused. The prey may get treated like a littermate/playmate before the predators either lose interest or their instincts kick in again and they finish it off. Even in experienced big cats (and small cats!) this can happen e.g. in females where the maternal instinct overrides the hunting instinct.

[Richard W]

Is this thread a resurrection of an old one? All the dates suggest it's current but I'd swear we had exactly the same pictures and conversation last year somewhen.

As Joe said, the pictures are real, but it turns out that the antelope did get eaten, only the Mail decided to pretend it hadn't been.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Is this thread a resurrection of an old one? All the dates suggest it's current but I'd swear we had exactly the same pictures and conversation last year somewhen.

You're probably thinking of the lioness adopts baby oryx discussion which had similar images.

[franjava]

Originally Posted by Der Induktionator

Sadly it isn't nearly as cute if I decide to have a little snuggle with my food before a meal.

Yeah, nuzzling your food gets pasta sauce up the nose. (Garlic burns!)

[chocolate kisses]

Originally Posted by obxbaby54

I dunno ... No. 2 looks pretty photo-shopped to me.

Maybe that's because they blurred the genitals of the cheetah?

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

In inexperienced big cats, if the prey stops behaving in a prey-like manner, the hunt-kill instinct gets confused.

Interesting. I wonder if this is in part responsible for our cats, who normally hunt rodents, having little to no interest in the pet rats. They don't BEHAVE like prey, but like members of the family, so the cats just don't bug em. Of course, being chased by said rats the couple of times the cats tried it probably made them less desirable as well.

[Thera]

I don't understand why the impala is just standing there instead of running while he still (might) have had a chance. Fear?

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by Thera

I don't understand why the impala is just standing there instead of running while he still (might) have had a chance. Fear?

Maybe he's confused a la the bird in "Are You My Mother?"

[snopes]

The last image in the sequence looked something like this:

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Thera

I don't understand why the impala is just standing there instead of running while he still (might) have had a chance. Fear?

Fear, exhaustion, confusion & just doesn't know how to react any more.

[GenYus234]

With my house cat, the "tap with extented paw" in #2 is not a mark of affection, it is a way to say, "let's play!". And I don't think an impalla's version of play is the same as a cheetah's.