Little, Lean, Speed Machines

Masai Mara National Reserve

Remember the previous Armageddon when the mammoths died off as did half the humans during the last ice age? Aree, the one with the Biblical Flood. It was called the Younger Dryas. Well, most cheetahs around the world went with the mammoths. The hunting games of the Pommy Raj period in India saw relentless efforts by useless, boot lickers like a not at all distinguished coward by the name of Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of (now) Chattisgarh whose only contribution to this world was the murder of over 1000 tigers and the extinction of the Asiatic Cheetah. A sub species by itself.

So, the Cheetahs we have left now in Africa are at the closest to what happens to a species if the story of Noah’s Ark were to come true. Inbreeding brings deformity, weakness, death and is basically a slow and tedious march to extinction of the whole species. Just Google European Royals who tried experimenting with a pure blood line and see the results.

Why the Indian Government would want to further inbreed a species that’s going extinct because of this is something I cannot wrap my brain around, but I also do not understand why they want to inbreed the lions in Gir and cause the same problem there. Wouldn’t spreading the Asiatic lion out ensure its survival?  Maybe we just oughta try and save what we have first instead of fixing something that went wrong somewhere else. Hey, I’m no expert, the department is. But I suspect expertise does not matter when there is more votes in scoring pride points. Pride points from the nation on the return of the Cheetah. Pride points from a State, in sole custodianship of the Asiatic Lion. Im not even going to go into how an animal that lives in the savannah is completely unfit in the jungle and vice versa. A 12 year old watching a documentary can see that one place has trees and bush, the other does not.

Cheetah’s all look the same to me. Male, female, different ages, all. I also feel that I can read expressions on other cats faces, not so easy with these guys. They’re the smallest African big cat at 4.9 ish feet length. In comparison African leopards get to 7.5 feet without tail. So the problem I faced with photographing these guys is similar to that of the Hippo. You’re shooting at an angle. If he’s close, the angle’s to steep always, if he’s far, he’s usually curled up or laying down and the same problem. Add to that, they hide very well in the savannah grass which can get upto 6.5 feet length.

David, who was driving us in the Mara liked Cheetahs a lot and we’d always end up very close to them. I think he was also least threatened by them. I am very thankful to him for the experiences. We spent an amazing afternoon in the rain with Winda and Olyonok who used our car for shelter. Just watching them lick each other off after the rain and cuddle to stay warm, right outside the window was an experience to remember always for me. But I swear I wanted nothing more than to step out and lay down with the cam. They’re one species where the ratio of good photos to time spent, wasn’t good for me, honestly.

Well, that’s one big reason to go back cause this thing with Cheetahs in India sounds super sketchy to me. I hope Im wrong. Ill save a lot of money. Still sketchy though.