27 CHEETAHS: AGAINST THE ODDS
In the Serengeti, cheetahs live uneasy lives. Females with cubs must hunt. Left alone, their offspring are exposed to the savagery of more powerful predators. Even scavengers can gain the upper hand over this slender feline built for speed. Cheetahs are the fastest-but also the most vulnerable of the big cats.
In this wonderful new film we follow two cheetah mothers, both with varying fortunes that raise their families against all the odds. Does experience count or are they both at the mercy of Lady Luck.
One female cheetah has made her home out of a group of kopjes. These rocky outcrops are a distinctive feature of this part of East Africa. She has a litter of five. She will need good fortune and considerable skill to raise all of her offspring to adulthood. The other female’s home range is further out into the open plains. She too has a big litter. Mortality in young cheetahs is high. Although females give birth to up to six cubs, ninety percent fail to reach adulthood. The cubs are completely dependent on their mother at this age and with so many mouths to feed the female needs to eat often.
The cheetah mother on the kopje has kept her cubs well concealed and against all odds she still has all five healthy youngsters. She searches for suitable food, unaware that she is being closely watched..by a hyena. Over on a far kopje the other cheetah family searches for prey. The search has lead her into unfamiliar territory and grave danger. Lions take one cub and leave it behind severely wounded.
The cheetah that lives on the kopje has raised her five cubs successfully. But they are not yet independent and never totally out of danger. To survive without their mother they must be able to kill for themselves. The mother encourages her offspring to practice, targeting wildebeest about to calve.
A lone male cheetah is not comfortable with five intruders in his territory. But the cubs need their own hunting ground and they have numbers on their side. The solitary cat has to back down. Neither side is prepared to risk injury. A cheetah that can’t hunt is doomed.
And exactly that has happened on the other side of the plains. The mother has spotted potential food for her and her three remaining cubs, but the gazelle within her sights proves too strong and succeeds in seriously injuring his enemy. The cub’s only chance now is to provide for themselves, but their hunting tactics have not yet developed. Meanwhile, the mother on the kopje is ready to leave her family of five. She has shown she is a formidable hunter and exceptionally successful mother.
This beautiful film captures the passing months and changing seasons and shows, hunt by hunt, lesson by lesson, the once vulnerable cubs growing into adolescence.
A Nature Conservation Films production for France5, Animal Planet US and the EO
Length - 1 x 50'
© 2008