Kgalagadi Cheetah Discussion

[GavinW]

Great sighting

We are back in the park in 5 weeks time and can't wait.
Is the grass pretty long after all the rain?

[Mel]

Hi Gavin, yep, the grass was pretty high in places. I found the lower Nossob not as bad as the stretch between Uri and Kamfers. In the upper Auob also some stretches with very high grass, but also lower parts.

It was hard to see anything smaller than one of the big cats. We had trailed Hanri and her cubs and I swear, if we hadn't known they were there, we would've missed them. Just the tips of the ears visible sometimes!

Any smaller animal that was in the road and rushed into the grass on either side of the road could not be found again. Swallowed by the vegetation.

There were still good sightings possible with the cats not too keen to walk the the high grass either. So often we'd find some in the roads.

[Lisbeth]

You saw a lot of the cheetahs

[Mel]

We did indeed. But we had to work hard for it and it was "only" 12 different cheetahs with two groups being seen twice.

What irked me most was that I was looking for Lizzie and her big male cub Lokesh and the two smaller cubs. We drove the area we knew they were in up and down like mad. Nothing. To add insult to injury, Lizzie showed one late afternoon on a stretch that we had done six times during that day. Plus, we had an extra of three sets of eyes who stayed at Mata and KTC respectively who never saw them either. And then... two days after we had left the park, that darn thing walks into Dalkeith during daytime. I cannot count the times we stood in Dalkeith hoping for her to show up. I'm royally annoyed with that lady

[nan]

Oh no ! don't be "furax" against Lizzie... you saw so many Cheetahs
for my pleasure... strictly egoistement pleasure

next time, I'm sure you will have a next time

[nan]

a real regal, thanks so much Mel

[Mel]

Oh no ! don't be "furax" against Lizzie... you saw so many Cheetahs
for my pleasure... strictly egoistement pleasure

next time, I'm sure you will have a next time

It's not Lizzie herself I was after but the very unique constellation of her raising two sets of litter. That's basically like winning the lotto. And that ship has sailed for me because Lokesh will be long gone when I'm able to go back next time.

[Lisbeth]

A couple of fingers were not enough, you wanted the whole hand

[PRWIN]

We did indeed. But we had to work hard for it and it was "only" 12 different cheetahs with two groups being seen twice.

What irked me most was that I was looking for Lizzie and her big male cub Lokesh and the two smaller cubs. We drove the area we knew they were in up and down like mad. Nothing. To add insult to injury, Lizzie showed one late afternoon on a stretch that we had done six times during that day. Plus, we had an extra of three sets of eyes who stayed at Mata and KTC respectively who never saw them either. And then... two days after we had left the park, that darn thing walks into Dalkeith during daytime. I cannot count the times we stood in Dalkeith hoping for her to show up. I'm royally annoyed with that lady

Mel where you looking for this sorry could not resist, taken february

[Mel]

I probably did and you can make me with that because in February they were still all over the place, basically seen every day.
But with Mark Kaptein leaving the park, Lizzie left the riverbed or so it seems. They do have some sort of hidden love affaire
And there was no report of her being seen for basically the whole of March either.

So, you went at a lucky time

Any photos of them all together?