On my first visit aged fourteen, I spent a day at Africat, helping out with Leprechaun the cheetah.
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| Me with Leprechaun |
Leprechaun was an elderly male cheetah living permanently at Okonjima (who has probably expired by now...) who was darted and brought in for a vaccination and a brief check up. Whilst he was still heavily under the influence of the dart, I groomed him. It may surprise anybody who knows about cats to learn that cheetah are quite dirty; whilst most cats groom fastidiously, Leprechaun's fur was full of matts and burrs, he was covered in flies, and absolutely stank. I was able to get some of the tangles out with a wire brush, and exorcise the flies with fly powder.
The reason for this unusaul behaviour is that cheetah are not actually very cat-like; in the feline family tree, they occupy a separate branch from the rest of all other cats. In many respects they are almost more dog-like, with slack hygeine standards, straight, slim bodies and limbs, and dog-like feet with un-retractable claws. Their most definitively feline feature is their skull shape.
All these features make cheetah highly adapted to speedy travel. I will explain each feature and its function in my next post!
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