During a game drive in the Serengeti this morning we were delighted to discover a cheetah looking to make a meal out of either a Thomson’s gazelle or a red hartebeest.  We stopped the vehicle to watch for a while and the cheetah was singling out a meal from among the many antelope so we hoped for a chase.

After a half-hearted attempt to catch a gazelle, the cheetah stopped for a while to catch its breath and perched on a small mound to better survey the area.  A hyena, attracted by the chase, came over toward the cheetah and began to harass it a bit.  Although capable of catching their own meals occasionally, hyenas are scavengers therefore tend to follow around cheetah if they can because when the cheetah catches an antelope the hyena can simply steal the carcass due to its larger size.

Both predators came toward the truck where we’d been sitting for about 15 minutes and then walked past the cabin toward a slightly distant rise about 40m away.  It was at this moment that the SPOTD award was given because one of the others on our tour decided that since we were sitting still in the truck, it would be an excellent time to nip out for a pee break.  After all, if we were all watching the animals out one side of the truck, he reasoned he could just pee on the other side and nobody would be watching.

Wandering in the Serengeti near two reasonably large carnivores did not occur to him as a bad idea.  It was apparently only when the guide yelled at him and demanded that he get back into the vehicle that he realised he was not faster than a gazelle and therefore would rapidly become lunch.

Categories: Travel, SPOTD, Africa 2007