One of the survival methods that cheetah will use, is that they have large litters of cubs.
The survival rate of the cheetah cubs, is the lowest of all the big cats and I have personally filmed lion, leopard and spotted hyena killing cheetah cubs.
In the Tiger Canyons experiment, we have discovered a second survival technique. A mother cheetah can produce her first litter of cubs at just 24 months. (According to Will van Duyn who has bred many cheetah, it is rare but it does occur).
Lion, leopard, jaguar and tiger will produce their first litters after 36 months.
Therefore the cheetah mother has a full 12 months start on the bigger cats. This is a big advantage.
At Tiger Canyons, one of our female cheetah, either Mara or Shashe, has produced 3 cubs. (We have not yet identified the mother). What is more extraordinarily, is that the female cheetah was impregnated by the male cheetah Sabi, who was not yet 20 months old at the time of the mating.
One tends to think of cheetah as predators of small to medium small size prey. However the cheetah at Tiger Canyons have captured steenbuck, springbuck and adult blesbuck.
One of the most interesting things about cheetah mating behaviour, is that it is rarely if ever seen.
Warren Samuels who has spent a lifetime filming in the Masai Mara, a cheetah stronghold, has never captured it on film. During my 17 years in the Masai Mara, I twice filmed 2 males competing over a females in estrus. However, I was never able to film the actual mating.
It seems that unlike lions, leopards and tigers who copulate many times during a period of 4 to 5 days, the copulation is believed to bring the female into ovulation, the cheetah is shy during mating, preferring to hide in thick bush or mate at night. It seems a few copulations are necessary for the male cheetah to impregnate the female and then the male moves on.
I have never ever filmed the male cheetah with the female and her cubs. If anyone has seen or photographed cheetah father, mother and cubs together, would they let me know. In addition, if you have ever seen or filmed wild cheetah mating, I would dearly love to see the sequence.
I have filmed lion, lioness and cubs, male leopard, female leopard and cubs and male tiger, tigress and cubs together in the same frame. Never cheetah!
The more I work with the big cats, the more I realize that there is nothing wrong with their hunting, their reproduction and their ability to adapt. However, all of them compete with human beings and this is a war that they will most certainly lose.