Are they related?

MIKE & NELIE VAN DYK from Springs write: We were recently in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and saw these cheetahs with their catch near Auchterlonie. There was a male and a female with three cubs. Usually, the female looks after her cubs alone – is the male their father or maybe an older brother?

Wildlife expert LD VAN ESSEN says: As far as we know male cheetahs are not involved in raising their cubs. Only a genetic test would be able to confirm whether this male cheetah is the cubs’father or brother. It’s unlikely in both cases, but not impossible.

Female cheetahs usually leave their cubs to fend for themselves when they are about 18 months old. The separation is sudden and quick and it’s thus improbable that this adult male is a cub from a previous litter.

Cheetah cubs lose the grey mantle on their back at three months – these long hairs are still visible on the cub pictured. Cheetahs have a gestation period of 90 – 95 days and thus the adult female is probably not in oestrus, which would explain why the adult male was photographed with her and her cubs.

This is possibly a young nomadic male that invited himself for dinner. Judging by the bulging stomachs of the female and the cub, they had already eaten their fill and allowed the male to eat as well.