We walked cheetahs

We got up at 6:45am Thursday so we could make it to Tenikwa by 7:30 to walk the cheetahs. We made it there by 7:35 and met the rudest woman I've met so far in South Africa, who told us we were 20 minutes late (apparently we were supposed to be there 15 minutes earlier).

From Plettenberg Bay

Then two of the cheetah handlers came (who were much nicer) and walked us to the cheetah enclosure where the two teenage brothers lived who we would be walking. When the cheetahs reach adulthood they are moved to a much larger enclosure with other adult cheetahs. The enclosure they were in now was still large (about 100 feet in length and width) but nothing compared to the adult enclosure.

The handlers spent a good 5-10 minutes coaxing the cheetahs onto the leash. Once they did, they brought them to us outside the enclosure and we were told the procedure for walking the cheetah:

1) Always let the cheetah feel like he is in the lead
2) Stay at the side or farther behind the cheetah, never in front
3) If he starts to run and you can't keep up, just let the leash go

From Plettenberg Bay

The harness had a double leash on it so the handler would always be holding one leash while we held the other. Nobody besides me wanted to walk the cheetahs at first so I walked with one of them. It was basically no different than walking a very strong and in control dog. Occasionally he would flip over and allow you to pet him, but you were always supposed to do it from the back side, not the stomach side. The handler would allow the cheetah to bite him, but he didn't bite any harder than a house cat would.

Some Cheetah facts we learned:
1) Cheetahs are built to run away, not to fight. They can run up to 70 mph
2) It is smaller than all the other big cats.
3) They have eyesight that can see a few kilometers away so they can see their prey or a predator like the lion.
4) Cheetahs can climb trees
5) Baby cheetahs have a white stripe on their head so as to look like badgers which lions are afraid of

From Plettenberg Bay

Occasionally the brothers would act like cheetahs and play fight with each other. One was abnormally large for a cheetah and won every time. The larger one ended up pulling away and sending his handler flat on her back. I guess that's one of the lesser risk of working with cheetahs. When our cheetah walk was over an hour and a half later, we had breakfast and then went on our "Wild Cat Tour" which they threw in as our student discount. We got to see some cats which are ancestors of the house cats, lynxes, and cranes.

From Plettenberg Bay

Some stayed in the bushes and watched us but some would come out to be pet.

When I saw our guide let the crane walk on his legs I asked if I could do it. I sat down and patted my legs and the crane walked on and the crane snooped about trying to steal my camera by the wrist strap. Then his wife came over and they started fighting on top of me by clicking their large beak rapidly. That was the most fun activity I did all day.