Cheetahs are really fast . . . at least so I have heard. The ones we saw were pretty busy lying around or walking away from minibuses. But even doing that they were much cooler than the various cat food we saw. The cheetahs did appear somewhat more bothered by the attention and apparently with good cause. We were informed that the many minibuses seem to have a greater detrimental effect on cheetah hunts than on the other cats' hunts. I can see where this would tend to annoy a cat. Although the closeup shots tend to mask the fact, their spots are pretty good camoflage and in the thumbnails it is difficult to pickout where the cheetah is.

Although we did not see them in action, cheetahs certainly look fast. They have streamlined faces, very thin waists and really strong back legs. The cheetahs we saw at Samburu were much thinner than the mother and cubs we saw at Maasai Mara. Cheetahs generally hunt in the morning and the evening.

Did I mention that cheetahs are really fast? Well they are. They can go from a 'dead' stop to over 40 mph in 2 seconds. Their top speed is around 75 mph. That is faster than we went in any vehicle in Kenya . . . including that plane from Maasai Mara to Nairobi, I think. It is difficult to really imagine how fast that is. You look at it and say, "yeah, 75 mph is pretty fast." Think about driving down I95 at 55 mph and passing a cheetah sitting next to the road. As you pass, the cheetah starts to run and he passes you about 5-6 seconds later doing 20 mph faster than you. You are in a 100 horse-power car and he is in a 1 cheetah-power cat.