Cheetahs get no respect. They have been known to lose the majority of their meals to lions, hyenas, vultures and even jackals —and in this video, we see that we need to add warthogs to that list.
Nature can be super surprising, and often, the unexpected is exactly what you can expect when you’re at a sighting in the wild. This is exactly the kind of experience Shakera Kaloo, 41, captured on film on the 18th of June 2020, in the Kruger National Park.
Shakera recounted the sighting: “We entered the park through Crocodile Bridge and about 5 minutes into our drive, we encountered a cheetah with an Impala. We were surprised, as we didn’t expect to be this lucky so soon after arriving in the park. We also haven’t seen a cheetah in the park for years – so this was really spectacular!”
“We watched a while as the cheetah sat close to the food, looking around to make sure that the coast was clear before settling down with its meal. This was when a warthog family approached and steadily made their way closer and closer to the impala!”
“Even more surprising than seeing warthogs at an impala catch was the fact that the cheetah did not even fight to protect the meal once the warthogs advanced closer to the food, and instead, walked way, submitting the impala to the warthogs.”
“I was too excited to take pictures, so my children were left with that task. When you get to a sighting, remember to take videos, because it’s incredible to be able to re-live events like this, even when it becomes a distant memory with time. This was indeed an unusual, yet, interesting sighting. We’ve always seen a warthog eating from the ground, so being able to witness a warthog actually eating meat was baffling! The fact that the cheetah did not fight or protect its meal was also very strange for us.”
“We’ve never seen a warthog doing this, nor did we know that warthogs eat meat from a carcass! The sighting ended with the cheetah walking away from the kill, and it walked along the side and sat on the signpost before moving off into the bush.”
Watch:
