Meru cheetah photos. Help the Mara Meru cheetah research project.

[Game Warden]

Dr. Elena Chelysheva runs the Mara Meru Cheetah Project, www.marameru.org and is compiling a working database on the cheetahs in both the Mara and Meru areas of Kenya.

 

Safaritalk is already running a topic for the Mara cheetahs, so this one is specifically for the Meru cheetahs. If you have any cheetah images taken in Meru NP please upload here with full details, tech specs, date, time etc.

 

There will soon be published my interview with Elena where we can find out more about her project.

 

Matt

 

 

 

[Game Warden]

I'll get the ball rolling, this image was taken in February 2014 and is courtesy and copyright @@Safaridude from our visit to Meru, the report of which is here.

 

One morning we head east toward Pippa’s Grave. The sun has yet to drench Meru, and in the deep shadow far ahead an outline of a cheetah is atop a stone-based road sign. He is startled by our approach and leaps into thick bush. Just as I think the sighting is over, the not quite fully mature male cheetah begins chirping (a remarkably bird-like call) for his lost brother. Stanley and James conjecture that some ruckus possibly involving lions or hyenas separated the two cheetah brothers overnight. The cheetah is somehow progressing through a nearly impenetrable patch, but we are able to follow him by turning off the engine once in awhile and listening for the chirps. Some vulturine guineafowls and a group of hartebeests mind us but not the cheetah. What they think they hear is simply a random bird chirping: nature granted the cheetah with the deceptive call, allowing the fragile cat to evade detection by stronger, dangerous predators. The chirps become more mournful and desperate as the day heats up. The cheetah finally shows himself in the open but then plunks down in the shade for the day. He shall try again this evening to find his lost brother.