KENYA: The Thrill of the Chase

So many delights in Samburu, we didn’t know where to look first. Lindsay and Lori were tasked with scouring the terrain in search of big cats, while Todd and I focused on the avian spectacle. We all caught sight of an Impala and a Kirk’s Dik-dik running away ahead of us, and wondered aloud if they were fleeing from a predator.

Suddenly Lindsay couldn’t get the words out in all her excitement, as she spotted and pointed to a Cheetah. It was mid morning, and getting late for hunting, but I wondered if the cat was on the prowl for a meal. My watch showed 10:01 AM. We watched the slender beauty walk in a relatively straight line, and followed her as she went further ahead. She paused in the shade of a Flat-topped Acacia, sat on her hind legs, and scanned the surroundings in front of her.

She soon got up and continued on her way, crossing the sand track in front of us and pausing once more behind a Toothbrush tree. We were positioned behind her, her back to us. She continued on for a few meters, before I sensed that she might have seen something. Her gait became more calculated and deliberate. She was now taking half steps, making slight adjustments in her posture, crouching ever-so-slightly lower. She definitely had her eyes set on something.

We moved ourselves into a more open position, never taking our eyes from the Cheetah. Suddenly, with no notice at all, she burst forward up the slight incline of a rocky knoll, then swung sharply to her right. Finally we saw her quarry, a small Dik-dik. Predator and prey were now visible in silhouette on the crest of the knoll, with the pursuer twenty-five meters behind. How both Cheetah and Dik-dik managed to evade the minefield of scattered rocks and boulders is something we’ll never know. The chase moved at lightening speed, with the Cheetah sprinting down the slope of the knoll, across a stony track and into a small thicket. There the Dik-dik, seeking shelter, had made a fatal error, and a second later, the Cheetah had a meal in its jaws.

My watch read 10:27 – twenty-six minutes of exhilaration. Always in search of action, we were actually quite lucky to witness this chase and kill!