Aat & Elly TR2020 - 05 - Cheetahs part II

[Richprins]

There is a discussion on the eland stripes somewhere, Klippies...if there were different subspecies they interbred LONG ago!

[aat]

Thanks Klipspringer,

There were more Eland with stripes and a few with just a few stripes. I just checked all photos I made.

Cool to see a larger herd!

Only one has distinct white stripes. As far as I remember, the stripes (or lack of stripes) are attributed to different subspecies or populations Or is that with coat colour only?

[Klipspringer]

Found it:

https://www.ewt.org.za/wp-content/uploa ... ryx_LC.pdf

Three subspecies of Common Eland have been recognised, though their validity has been in dispute
 Tragelaphus o. livingstonii (Sclater 1864; Livingstone's Eland): It is found in the Central Zambezian Miombo woodlands i.e. southcentral Africa (Angola, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi). Livingstone's Eland has a brown pelt with up to
twelve stripes.
 Tragelaphus o. oryx (Pallas 1766; Cape Eland): This subspecies is found south of the Zambezi river (South Africa, Botswana and Namibia). The fur is tawny, and adults lose their stripes.
 Tragelaphus o. pattersonianus (Lydekker 1906; East African Eland or Patterson's Eland): It is found in east Africa extending into the Somali arid areas, hence its common name. Its coat can have up to 12 stripes.

Tragelaphus o. oryx occurs throughout the larger part of South Africa, but the far northern Limpopo Province bordering Zimbabwe is regarded as a transitional zone between T. o. oryx and T. o. livingstonii or an area where they overlap. This argues the case that they should rather be described as ecotypes (in ecotypes, it is common for continuous, gradual geographic variation to impose analogous phenotypic and/or genetic variation; this
situation is called cline.).

But interesting to see different ones in the same herd!

[aat]

*** Travel Tales ***
Trip to Kruger NP 2020 New series of Stories

05 – Cheetah part II

© Aat Vuik

Hi all,

Hoping you are all doing well in crazy 2020

Thanks for all nice comments about previous story.

About this story… In my first story I showed you the 3 Cheetahs, but another day we met these Cheetahs again.
Very close to Mooiplaas waterhole (near Mopani camp) we found them and I guess we spent several hours just watching and waiting till they woke up and started to show themselves.


When we got to Mooiplaas waterhole we saw a number of Zebra and Wildebeast standing together and acting a bit nervous. They were looking at “something” and we were a bit triggered so we tried to find out what was going on.
Not easy but we found a spot and we could see these Cheetahs. Just in front of the zebra and wildebeast.

-

-

Next photo , you can see how close the zebra and wildebeast got to the Cheetahs.

-

-

It took some time before the Cheetahs started to move so waiting and waiting….

1 hour and 15 minutes later…. Suddenly Cheetahs woke up and started to move… so quickly moving to the waterhole to see them coming
First moms…

-

-

Second, one of the cubs

-

-

Number 3 was crossing the road very fast so no chance to make a decent photo.

Here all three together , heading for the waterhole. After a long sleep they were thirsty ….

-

-

And yes … they were drinking. We have never seen 3 cheetahs drinking together so for us a unique moment.

-

-

Moms at the lookout and cubs drinking.

-

-

Glad to have a nice zoom lens and a steady hand. At this distance it was not that easy to capture them well.

-

-

We were now watching them for 1 hour and 30 minutes and it was really worth it.

Specially now with no real view on when we can get to kruger again and watching the pictures at this moment it’s a bit difficult… it’s a weird feeling !


-

-

Cheetah was giving us a “goodbye” look before she and the other ones moved to the high grass

-

-

Fading out this story with two picture of the 3 cheetahs in the high grass

-

-

And

-

-


When do we see them again… ?? 2021 ? or…

Thanks for joining and hope you liked it

Aat & Elly

[Alf]

Stunning cheetahs at Mooiplaas waterhole

[Flutterby]

I've never even seen 1 cheetah drinking!! Fantastic sighting and well-worth the wait!!

[harrys]

Wonderful sighting

[Richprins]

Astounding sighting, aat!

And patience rewarded!

You will see them again one day!

[Pumbaa]

WoW Aat,

you always manage to have such wonderful sightings there

Fantastic cheetah shots

[aat]

To all :

I was wondering why my pictures were not visible anymore ???

No one here told me or explained to me why , so I was looking for possible reasons.

I found that pictures here are only displayed and visible if the source website is a secured website , so starting with HTTPS:// ....

I updated and upgraded my website & server to a secured one with a SSL certificate and see.... it works , all pictures for this travel tale are now visible.Also my tusker pictures at the mammals forum are now visible again.