Entito
Some cats are truly special. Or perhaps they all are; it’s just that we know the stories of some of them. Entito is one of our favourite cheetahs. She was born in the conservancy in 2016 and had a brother in the same litter. Normally they would have stayed on with their mother Nabor, till the age of about 20 months.
We don’t quite know what happened but one day when the two cubs were just about 10 months old and much too young to fend for themselves, they were separated from Nabor and on their own. Perhaps there had been a lion or hyena charge that separated the family. Be that as it may, the two cubs were never re-united with their mother. No one gave them the slightest chance of survival and we thought the two cubs would just die and contribute to the statistics of 90% cheetah cub mortality. But Entito and her brother refused to be reduced to a statistic. They hung together and hung on. Amazingly they never even lost condition. So they were able to hunt to feed themselves. The two cubs grew steadily bigger and stronger and then moved on to another conservancy. At some stage the two must have separated as is normal. We never saw the brother again after he moved away. However in August 2018, Entito suddenly reappeared very close to the camp, and now she had three small cubs with her. Girl cheetahs usually either give birth near where they were born themselves or go there once their cubs are able to walk.
The video is made from clips shot in 2017 on either the day Entito and her brother had been separated from Nabor, or very soon after that. Keep the audio on, you will hear the two young cubs calling out insistently for their mother. You will also be able to hear the alarm calls of the monkeys.
Entito and her brother with mum Nabor in 2016.
Entito and her brother on the same day as the video was shot, after being separated from Nabor.
Entito with her three cubs in 2018.
Entito’s litter consisted of two boys and a girl, all of whom survived and successfully separated from Entito once they were old enough to fend for themselves. She now has another litter of four small cubs about as old as their siblings in the photo.
