Cheetah in Etosha

Jay Jean Jackson
Sep 1
5 min read

There are many things that drew me to Namibia, the desert, the amazing enormous red dunes and Dead vlei a place that I didn't believe really existed until I had witnessed it with my own eyes. A real life surrealist painting created by nature.

But, of course, the first thing that made me research a trip to Namibia was the amazing diverse wildlife and especially the Cheetah. Of all the wild cats, I have always loved the cheetah the most. These days we decide where our next adventure will be by what we most want to see, as if it was the last one we could ever take. For me, my thinking was, if I could only see one more wild animal, what would it be? The answer was cheetah!

So after months of research and planning we decided to visit Etosha, trying to get accommodation in one of the camps proved difficult but we eventually managed to get five nights in Namutoni. It wasn't ideal and it certainly wasn't my first choice but we were finally booked and this was certainly going to be an epic adventure. A 3000km drive, to include the Namib desert, a 1500km bus ride to Zambia, a visit to Chobe in Botswana and of course we couldn't leave without viewing the magnificent Victoria falls in Zimbabwe. All of this we planned to do in just over two weeks.

We arrived in etosha exhausted, a flight from Izmir to Istanbul, then two short stopovers in Doha and Johannesburg, a short flight to Windhoek and a seven hour, 400 mile drive to reach Namutoni left us fatigued. I think we could have slept for days but we had wildlife to see, so when the sun started to rise the following day we rose with it and started our search for the elusive cheetah.

We visited the nearest waterholes to the camp and drove the short circuit around dik dik drive, within minutes we encountered two dik diks which was amazing, they are critically endangered tiny deer with huge eyes, not much bigger in size than a small dog.

Then as I turned around I saw our first giraffe, just standing there a few meters away from the car and all this before breakfast.

We rush our breakfast eager to get out and explore more but before we leave we research the wildlife diary in reception to see where cheetahs have been spotted and found there have been sightings at fischers pan, a circuit of approximately 40 kilometres. Finding a cheetah in such a huge wilderness would be nothing short of a miracle but you never know your luck!

My eyes were on stalks as we searched and searched, we stopped at a waterhole and hoped to see one there but there seemed to be little wildlife here and as the sun rose we knew our chances were fading. Wildlife sightings are mostly at dusk and dawn as animals search for shade away from the crippling heat of the African sun as it rises. We leave the waterhole with little hope of seeing anything as the heat intensifies.

We spot many beautiful coloured birds and feel so happy to just be here, searching for wildlife and admiring the endless salt pans, that are so huge they are apparently seen from space.

We decide to head back, Etosha is approximately 22,270 sq km with an abundance of wildlife present. However, finding a cheetah in this vast wilderness seems to be between improbable and impossible but I find myself still searching, unable to give up hope.

We stop as a sounder of warthogs emerge from the long grass, they look so comical with their upturned tusks and their tails standing upright as they run across the road behind us.

I had almost given up looking when I spotted a movement in the long grass, my heart skipped a beat and as I tried to speak nothing came out. I tried again and heard myself shout CHEETAH! STOP!

We stopped the car, his disbelief as great as mine, neither of us could believe it, I wasn't hallucinating there really was a cheetah, I couldn't keep the camera still I was shaking so much, I desperately tried to get a photo of her as she stretched her neck and tried to peer over the long grass.

'She's coming our way!' I whispered, still unable to believe my eyes. We drove slowly onward and to our utter disbelief she emerged from the camouflage of the grass onto the road straight in front of us with her two beautiful fluffy young cubs. She glanced at us as if she was a proud parent wanting to show off her children.

I am not sure there are enough words to describe the cascade of emotions and astonishment that followed. I knew when we came here it was a lottery and we would be more than lucky to get a glimpse of a wild cheetah and here we were following one down the road with her two cubs!

The cubs were hilarious, they stopped and growled at the car, two little fluff balls that sat in the road, played like kittens and padded slowly along after their mother, stopping often to squabble as siblings do. Their colouring were dark compared to hers and their spotty coat dull with soft grey fur running along their backs. This mantle of fur helps to disguise them from predators. They were so very cute but their mother was by far the most beautiful creature I had every laid my eyes on.

We watch her slink along, sniffing the air and looking around her while keeping a watchful eye on her cubs, her sleek body and long slender legs a work of natures art as her golden spotted coat shone under the African sun. She is so elegant and so graceful in every movement she makes. When both her and one of her cubs stop and look at me with their beautiful dark eyes and tear stained faces my heart melts and I know this really must be the ultimate, I cant imagine anything that could ever surpass this moment in life's, wildlife experiences.

All too soon she returned to the camouflage of the long grass and disappeared once more, I was still shaking my head in disbelief as to what we had just witnessed, I really could not believe our luck.

We returned to Fischer's twice before we left hoping to see our beautiful cheetah again, we searched and searched but we didn't find her, however, we did hear that others had seen her and I was relieved to know her two cubs were still with her. Cheetahs have many predators in the wild, lions, leopards and hyenas being the main ones here in Etosha and baboons in other national parks. A solitary mother has to hide her cubs while she hunts for prey, which leaves them so very vulnerable. Cub mortality can reach ninety per cent, I sincerely hope that the two feisty fluff balls that we met do make it to adulthood. Cheetah numbers are declining and their present conservation status is 'vulnerable.