This demonstrates that cheetahs are not treated with respect. They have even been known to lose the majority of their prey to jackals, vultures, lions, and hyenas! But now we realize that warthogs must be included in that list.
When you go to a sighting in the wild, you should frequently expect the unexpected because nature may be really surprising. Shakera Kaloo, a 41-year-old chartered accountant, documented this same encounter on camera on June 18, 2020, in the Kruger National Park.
The community at Latest Sightings was so awestruck by this extraordinary sighting that we wanted to speak with Shakera to learn more about her and her family’s experience.
“We used Crocodile Bridge to enter the park, and five minutes into our journey, we came across a cheetah and an Impala. We were taken aback because we didn’t anticipate being this fortunate so soon after entering the park. Additionally, it had been a while since we had seen a cheetah in the park, so this was very magnificent.”
We observed the cheetah for a time as it sat close to the food, scanning the area to make sure it was safe to eat before doing so. A family of warthogs began to approach and inched ever-closer to the impala at that moment.
The fact that the cheetah did not even try to defend the meal after the warthogs got close to it and instead strolled away, handing the impala over to the warthogs, was even more shocking than witnessing warthogs at an impala capture.
“My kids took the pictures because I was too excited to do it myself. Remember to record any sightings you go to because it’s amazing to be able to watch them again years from now when they become distant memories. It’s true that this was an odd but intriguing sighting. It was surprising to see a warthog really consume meat since we’ve typically seen them munching on vegetation. We found it really odd that the cheetah did not defend or fight for its meal.
“Neither did we know that warthogs consume flesh off a carcass, nor have we ever observed a warthog doing this! The cheetah left the kill when the sighting came to an end, strolling beside the road and sitting on a signpost before disappearing into the underbrush.