From Magnificent To Happily Ordinary

Masai Mara National Reserve

Just look up "most successful cheetah coalition " or anything near it and the name that comes up will be, the "Tano Bora". A group of 5 cheetahs who for 5 years, turned the Kenyan Savannah on its head. They disrupted and redefined our understanding of these animals and their story, was featured in Netflix's "Night on Earth".

To start, Cheetah's are usually solitary animals, they are small. My first surprise was how small they are. They hunt during the day to avoid bigger predators and they stalk, run, kill, grab and run / eat making small prey the norm. If they form coalitions, its usually a pair. That's the norm always.

Around 2016. two blood brothers and another three related brother cheetahs started hunting together. With five of them moving strategically at Cheetah speed, these guys were unstoppable. They got braver and started taking on bigger prey. Soon they were bringing down huge prey 10 times their weight. Then they got cocky and started night raids and were successful in that format of their game as well while in direct competition with Lion Prides. They were literally mocking the so called kings. People came from all over the world to see them. They were called Orpadan, Olarishani, Leboo, Winda and Olonyok. Together, The Tano Bora, The Magnificent Five.

That's honestly the closest thing I've heard to a real super hero story in my life.

Perhaps, the closest things we humans have to super hero stories are the stories of our Rock Stars. We've seen this a million times, how after every peak, the beat will drop in every epic tale just like in every song that they wrote. Orpadan, the leader went chasing tail and disappeared for a couple of months. On his return, the rest of the guys mauled him to death. They were obviously pissed that their frontman chose skirts over bros. Kinda like kicking the vocalist out of the band. Olarishani went the same way. Leboo was supposedly killed by Lions.

Maybe there's a reason why genetically, they're programmed to form pair coalitions. Just imagine what a pack of Cheetah's hunting together could do. They are the cutest, docile, cats when not hunting, really. Maybe in many ways unaware of their potential.

Anyway, so, Winda and Olonyok remain. They are happily living the normal cheetah life. I just checked and someone posted a video of them hunting like 3 days ago, this time with a female with cubs. It was a huge pleasure seeing these two just being what they were perhaps intended to be. Happy Cheetahs, being normal cheetahs and not Magnificent. Retired super heroes, so to speak.