Boris’s spot of bother with a cheetah
BORIS Johnson looked wary trying to pet the world’s fastest animal – a large male cheetah.
The ex-foreign secretary touched Saba, who chewed at his woolly hat with a purr in footage at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent.
He posted the clip on Twitter and wrote that at the park he “met Saba the cheetah who will soon be released into the wild. He nibbled my hat. You can see I was totally calm and at ease…”
But animal handlers were heard in the video saying “Just relax” and “Don’t push him away”.
The Tory MP was teased on Twitter, with one user saying: “Cheetahs don’t eat snakes, you got lucky.” And: “If he can’t even bite ready prey he’s not going to survive in the wild, alas.”
Another joked: “One cheetah comes face to face with another.”
Mr Johnson was looking into the conservation work of the park’s owners, the Aspinall Foundation.