Sighting:   18 cheetah sightings in 4 days!
Location:   Kalahari Plains Camp, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana
Date:    13-16 December 2009
Observers:   Diana du Cros & Kalahari Plains Camp guides
Photographers:  Diana du Cros

Having carefully planned my African safari around the best areas for cheetah and leopard viewing, never - not even in my wildest dreams - could I have imagined I would have enjoyed no fewer than 18 cheetah sightings. These all took place in Botswana's enormous Central Kalahari Game Reserve while staying at Wilderness Safaris' new permanent camp: Kalahari Plains.

During our time here we explored the area around camp, a massive flat grassy pan, and also the renowned Deception Valley, destination of a number of day trips. During the summer months in the Kalahari, the chief prey species of the cheetah, the springbok, concentrates in large herds along the valley and pan floors feeding on new grass shoots and this is when cheetah viewing is at its best.

We quickly became familiar with several cheetah families - mothers with their dependent cubs - and encountered these on a regular basis. One sighting in particular was noteworthy however.

Driving around the 700-hectare pan located in front of camp, we came across a gathering of no less than five cheetah. This was something different to what we had encountered thus far. Something was up! Initially all five animals appeared adult and a great deal of aggressive interaction appeared to be happening.

Cheetah are asocial animals with females being solitary unless accompanied by cubs, and males seen singly unless members of a coalition. Such coalitions are usually two or three animals in number. Exceptions to these 'rules' occur when females are in oestrus and may attract males from more than one territory. At these times the female is usually alone, having reared her previous cubs to independence. It does occasionally occur that family groups of cheetah with the mother already in oestrus (or perhaps not) are encountered by a territorial male coalition.

After studying the photographs and discussing our observations, this is what my guide Tony and I believed happened. A mother, accompanied by two of her near adult offspring (identified by the ruff of mane or mantle on their necks), attracted the attention of two adult territorial males who proceeded to stamp their dominance on the family while investigating the sexual status of the mother.

As we watched, the mother mostly stayed in a sitting position while minor aggressive interaction occurred between the other animals, the younger males bearing the brunt of the encounter with much pouncing, attacking, hissing and snarling with raised hackles.

This interaction continued throughout the morning without abating until eventually the female appeared to tire of the fun and games and moved to the shade, leaving us to continue our Kalahari meanders with other amazing creatures like aardwolf, honey badgers and the charming bat-eared foxes.