Pitch a lone red hartebeest against three ravenous cheetahs and you’d think the outcome would be clear. But what if the brave antelope doesn’t give up the fight? By Arnold Ras
When: 10 March 2018
Where: Mountain Zebra National Park
After last month’s hair-raising lion brawl in Mountain Zebra, this national park is yet again in the spotlight. This time round, three opportunistic cheetahs targeted a red hartebeest. But this photo sequence might very well shatter your preconceived ideas about predator and prey.
Although Wild traveller Gerhard Geldenhuys did not witness the initial pursuit, he arrived on the scene just in time. The red hartebeest was securely pinned down by two cheetahs while a third was resting in the distance. What Gerhard assumed to be a cheetah mom and her two sub-adult offspring was in fact three siblings.
Despite staring death in the face, the hartebeest had no intention of giving up easily. Gerhard watched in amazement as the antelope continued to struggle. Adding to the intrigue: why did the third cheetah not take part in the kill?
[Take note that the pictures below might upset sensitive readers.]
“The subadults were seemingly not strong enough to throttle the hartebeest – it went down and got back up after several attempts to kill it. As the one cat inflicted horrific bites to the buck’s backside, the other desperately tried to kill it,” says Gerhard.
Battered, bruised and exhausted, the hartebeest’s chances at survival became bleaker with every painful bite.
Nature can be cruel, but these cheetahs certainly bit off more than they could chew.
– Wild Card member, Gerhard Geldenhuys
Enough is enough!
“As the cheetahs gathered their strength, the hartebeest got up and ran away towards Rooiplaats Loop. The three cheetahs had to make peace with their failed attempt at finding food. We still wonder what happened to the wounded hartebeest.”
Where’s cheetah #3?
With the third cheetah enjoying the shade of a nearby tree, Gerhard was left wondering why it hadn’t participated in the struggle. “As the badly injured hartebeest ran off in the direction of the uninvolved cheetah, the spotted cat got up with extreme difficulty and limped away.”
It’s then when Gerhard saw the cheetah’s wounds.
More than meets the eye
Sergeant ranger Donovan Antonie of Mountain Zebra National Park says the cheetahs are in fact two brothers and a sister. “It’s the sister that’s injured. The three are the offspring of a cheetah called Angela and are a year and few months old. Guides found Angela a few days ago with new cubs – they could only spot two.”
Asked about the whereabouts of the injured cheetah, Donovan says: “We are sending out a team daily to look for them, but our efforts have been in vain. During a recent game census, we tracked their known territories extensively from the air, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. We believe she is still alive. Remember, this very cheetah made a full recovery after suffering a broken leg when she was much younger.”
Incredible sequence of images & an amazing sighting! Not nice to see the Red Hartebeest’s dreadful wounds & its quite something that it got away although I am sure with those injuries it would have been easy prey for another predator.
Very sad to see the really dreadful wound / injury to the female Cheetah – would The EWT not get involved in finding, darting & treating this being so severe & an endangered species??
I hope öthat the Park Rangers tracked and shot that badly injured Hartebeest to end its suffering.
Nature indeed can be cruel.
Looking forward to our next visit to Mountain Zebra NP.
Urs Thierstein
I hope the park rangers do absolutely nothing to either the red hartebees or the female cheetah – let nature take its course – that is what conservation is all about!
Very dramatic sequence of fotos.
From my observations of cheetahs and their hunting in Kgalagadi, I would suspect that these cheetahs are young and inexperienced – the hartebeest was just too strong for them.
In KTP, they are capable of pulling down gemsbok and blue wildebeest.
Cheetahs HAVE TO attack while in full-flight and then get the animal down in order to throttle it.
I agree that we should not interfere with Nature, but considering the few cheetahs left, perhaps only that animal should receive medical attention, and leave the hartebeest to other predators…..
Amazing sequence! Thanks for posting these pictures. We watched a mother cheetah and her three large nearly full-grown cubs bring down an impala in the Kgalagadi. The mother did the real work and the cubs ran around looking bewildered. It’s hard to be a cheetah and it’s tough to be a hartebeest–their horns seem to go in the wrong direction! But essentially you ae all so lucky you have these incredible national parks where the dramas of nature can be played out as evolution intended. It’s great living in Hawaii but we’re desperate to be back in one of your game reserves next year. Aloha.
It is interesting how some species act in consort to save a herd member but others stand around and do nothing! In the species in this great sighting even species with formidable horns do not attack predators as do buffalo herds? Might be those species which migrate, or used to, in large numbers do not waste energy attacking predators instead they breed profusely like wildebeest to make up for losses but herd species that are residents tend to try and rescue calves being attacked?
Your insight is refreshing.
I think you may have a very good point, definitely worth examining in greater detail.
Some really amazing images well captured and great story telling.
Just so sad to see the injuries incurred on both sides, a bit of a lose lose situation.
Hopefully the cheetah has been found and treated. Poor old hartebeest deserves to live after all his effort, but in vain no doubt.
Amazing photos! I feel so sorry for both the injure d’s, but pleased that the Hartebeests managed to got away!
We visited the Kruger for many many times since I was 5 years of age, and now I am in my 60’s . Saw several attempts to a kill, or arrived after the killing, but never saw the real thing, and I am so pleased.