Cheetah Hunt Impala at Marataba

An exciting safari moment happened for our guests who had been patient in their quest to see cheetahs at Marakele National Park. On a morning game drive (5 June 2023) with Field Guide Elmar van Niekerk, they would have an unforgettable encounter. But we’ll let them tell it in their own words…

It was our last morning at Marataba Safari Lodge. We were staying here for four nights and had been asking our guide multiple times about seeing the cheetahs, because other guests had seen them, but not us as yet.

On this morning we got to a spot where a sighting was called in of the cheetah, but they were not there when we arrived. Our field guide, Elmar, decided it would be good to wait for a while and sure enough the cheetahs popped out from the bushes. Elmar said they had probably just gone down to have a drink. They came and flopped down under a tree and went to sleep, but Elmar said he had a gut feeling that something was different.

We watched them sleep for a while, but a male impala rutting call woke them up not long into their nap. After listening for a while the brothers got up, walked, and did a pincer movement in the direction of the impala call. Our guide drove around the block to try and find them, but after five minutes with no sighting, it wasn’t looking good.

Then, we heard one of the brothers calling and he popped out of the bush and onto the road about 100m from us. As we approached him a Pumba (warthog) ran out onto the road and not far behind it was an impala running at full speed with the other brother right behind it. As the impala approached the road, the cheetah who was on the road came running towards him. The brother behind the impala smacked one of the impala’s back legs causing it to fall, and almost instantly the other brother was on top of the impala’s neck biting down on it with full force. While one brother was biting down on the impala’s neck, the other brother began to eat the belly away while the impala was still alive. To save you from all the graphic details, the entire feeding time took 30 mins and there was next to nothing left of the impala.

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