Watch this gruesome moment a cheetah caught an impala that slipped on the road, then halfway through eating the impala, the impala tries to run away! It doesn’t end there, a moment later, the cheetah needs to stand its ground against vultures.
It’s always a great feeling to know that a few Latest Sightings members are at the same sighting. This sighting was tinged on our app two days ago and we received this incredible footage by two community members who got to film the same sighting right as it happened!
In this action-packed experience, Adri van den Merwe, Rabbi Auerbach and the Kiselstein Family all filmed this sighting from two different angles, and caught up with LatestSightings.com to tell us about how each of them felt during this heart-wrenching event:
Adri, a 26-year-old financial advisor and entrepreneur and 45-year-old Eliezer were both on the H4-2 about 10km from Crocodile Bridge Gate, traveling in opposite directions when the action started unfolding.
Rabbi Auerbach and the Kiselstein Family were first to arrive at the sighting and were also the first to ting the sighting. “We were traveling back from Skukuza, going to Crocodile Bridge when we saw a cheetah lying on the side of the road, and decided to wait and see what would happen.”
“My son had a Zoom class, so we decided to wait there for about 35 minutes as this was where the signal was best. The cheetah started stalking and got ready to hunt, and that’s when we noticed the impala off in the distance grazing next to the road. The action followed soon after!”
“We’ve been coming to Kruger Park for over 32 years, and we’ve never seen a successful kill like this before! We were extremely excited as the action unfolded and we were lucky to capture it all on video. We stayed until the vultures left almost nothing to spare of the cheetah’s meal which was almost 2 hours later.”
Rabbi Auerbach also wanted to end off with the following: This is a witness to the wonders of the creator. “You open your hands and satisfy the needs of all the living”(psalms 145,16) G-d provides for the cheetah and the vultures and he certainly provides for you too!”
Adri, arrived at the sighting just as the Cheetah was dragging the impala off the road while suffocating it – missing the chase by seconds! “The cheetah started eating the (then still very much alive) impala. We could see the impala still making attempts to run, midst it being eaten, when the vultures started circling above and then slowly one by one made their way down to the ground, gathering together and then approached the kill as one.”
“The cheetah was aware of the vultures and seemed to try and take fast bites as if it knew that it wouldn’t have its meal to himself for long. The vultures moved closer and closer until they finally chased the cheetah off and started feeding on the impala. Within minutes there was almost no flesh left on the carcass!”
“I had mixed feelings about the sighting, and actually started crying when I saw the impala kicking while the Cheetah was feeding on it. Though it was sad, that’s just nature, and I had to remind myself about that for a while after the sighting. When the vultures chased the cheetah off, I felt quite bad for the poor cheetah, because it worked so hard for the kill, and just like that – it was gone! The vultures finished all the flesh off the carcass and then a hyena came and took what was left of it while the cheetah just walked off and disappeared into the bushes.”
WATCH:
What is also fascinating is watching the lappet-faced vulture using its size and strength to claim the whole carcass for himself, against all the other vultures.
