Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
The other day I did a "PS" in one of my posts about the remarkable friendship between a volunteer and a cheetah at The Cheetah Experience in South Africa.
The great sir @krazzytrukker really enjoyed it and thought I should do a full post dedicated to the subject so here it is.
The volunteer mentioned above is Dolph Volker. He's an IT expert but also has a background in biology and a degree in Zoology. He lives in the United States but saves every penny to spend his vacation time with the Cheetahs in S.A.
His friendship with several of them has gained world-wide attention in wildlife publications and with animal behaviorists. One of Dolph's best Cheetah friends is Gabriel, whom he met when Gabriel was 8 months old.
Here's Dolph and Gabriel:
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Dolph has been visiting South Africa every year but he missed one year so when he finally made it back it had been 2 years since he'd seen Gabriel and he didn't know if Gabriel would remember him or not.
A video of that reunion:
Obviously Gabriel not only remembered Dolph but was thrilled to see him! They spent lots of time together and became even closer friends.
Dolph legally purchased him and sends the reserve money to make sure Gabriel has fresh red meat everyday.
Cheetahs are not big animals but they need about 2 pounds of red meat daily to stay healthy.
Dolph plans to move to South Africa and start up his own Cheetah reserve in which he'll breed the endangered cats. The cubs will be raised with their moms.
Some will be kept for breeding with other cats from various reserves to keep the gene pool fresh and some will be released back into the wild. You can read more about his plans on his facebook page called The Cheetah Whisperer.
He also has a youtube channel which is full of interesting videos like this beautiful one where he takes two Cheetah cubs on a rabbit hunt:
The Cheetah population has been dwindling with only about 7,000 left in the world so the effort to preserve their species is at a crises point.
One of the main reasons for their decline in numbers are the disgusting poachers who capture cubs and sell them to wealthy people who want an exotic pet.
Unfortunately most of those cubs only last one year due to the ignorance of the owners feeding them the wrong diet and other factors.
This makes Dolph's mission a very important one and I know he'll succeed in helping to save this majestic and beautiful cat.
Here he's getting a "Nose bite" from Gabriel. The nose bite is a very significant sign of affection only given by the Cheetah to his closest friends.
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That looks a little scary to me. lol. But once you earn a Cheetah's trust they are very dedicated and will never turn on you.
They will be your best friend for life and someone who loves to hang out with you:
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Thanks for stopping by folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
By the way, the Cheetah is the fastest land animal on earth with top speeds of 68 to 75 mph(109.4 to 120.7 km/h).
They're simply magnificent!
So unless the prey can fight them off or can dart into a hole or someplace they can't get you.. you're basically dead meat.
A Cheetah chasing a wild boar:
I had to include a cub. lol:
A beautiful story and magnificent animal. I didn’t realize a Cheetah could be a pet.
Howdy redheadpei! Well they don't make good pets generally speaking. Dolph classifies them as "half tame" animals and unless you spend tons of time with them and relate to them in their way and feed them raw, red meat everyday it's almost impossible to make them completely tame.
It took him along time to get close to most of them. Like one video showed him feeding one and him throwing the meat down and darted out and shut the gate as the Cheetah arrived and pounced on the meat growling. lol.
Love the connection between these 2. Scary but beautiful.
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Howdy sir blewitt! Yes I agree. Well Dolph classifies the Cheetahs as only "half tame" so he says you have to really know what you're doing!
Call me coward, call me chicken, whatever, but I am never going anywhere near these creatures, no matter how tamed they are. 😊
lol...well you are wise sir Vincent because Dolph actually classifies them as being "half tame" and that is after spending many days and nights with them and relating to them in their way, plus he has a special gift to be able to do that.
In other words, it would be quite dangerous for most people to try!
Well i hope it stays that way. I always find it very interesting when people are able to imprint with wild animals and have some sort of mutual respect. I wonder if he is nervous around them because they can accidentally rip his face off just by playing a bit too hard.
lol...well I think it takes a long time to gain the trust of the adults but once you do then it's fine because they consider you part of the family. But I think it's difficult to achieve and even he classifies the Cheetahs as only half tame.
I think it would be foolish for most people to try it!
Thank You Jonboy....!!!
My Lil' Cheetah Sammi Jo does the nose bite too.... LoL
And She is right by my side as always, home 2 night on the couch.
Oh how interesting! I didn't realize house cats did the nose bite thing too! What's your plan for this week?
If we fall over dead, and no one finds us..... They will eat our face......
If we fall over
Dead, and no one finds us..... They
Will eat our face......
- krazzytrukker
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
Ok..that might be true. Is THAT what your plan is for this week?
Not Planned. But then again. A Corona Virus Meltdown was not planned either.....
Hysterical Panicked Lemmings are shutting the whole country down.
Howdy today sir krazzytrukker! What is not planned, your week? Well the conspiracy people say the virus meltdown WAS planned. I don't know, could be. Stranger things have happened like you being on Steemit. lol.
Did you guys do your emergency TP run? lol. In Australia they are posting armed guards in the TP aisle to make sure people only take their allotted amount of packages.
Gonna listen to Trump then go out to eat with My Pooky like nothing is wrong.... Even as the Country falls into Mass Hysteria...... SMFH
Locked and Loaded here.....
What an interesting man to give so much of his time, money and energy to Cheetahs. He certainly does have a connection with the animals. It must have to do with being fearless. What do you think?
I'm sure that figures into it. That and patience, wisdom, and understanding how to relate to them in their way. It takes alot of time unless they're tiny cubs.
One video showed him feeding an adult and he threw down some meat and made a dash to the gate because the cheetah was on it in an instant they're so quick! And it would have been very dangerous to be close to the cheetah's food. lol.
Later they showed him close to one of his cheetah friends who was eating and he just started to move his arm in the direction of the bowl and the cheetah growled and Dolph moved his arm back and said "I get it." lol.
He classifies them as being "half tame." So this is not something for the average, untrained person to take on.
I will definitely leave this one to Dolph. He is a driven man and it would be interesting to know about his past lives - if there was one connected to these animals for example. (i am sure I am on my own with this comment,lol)
Oh that is a very interesting point, I didn't think about that. Yes, who knows?
Beautiful connection here💙🙏👍 there are many wild animals kept as pets here, especially in the royal family and some wealthy families. They travel with them in the back of their vehicles 😊
Oh how interesting, I bet you could see some amazing animals if you were following them! Well I'm sure over there the royals would hire people who knew how to take care of them.
Sorry Im late in responding, they dope them and show off, yes, they do have caretakers too.😚
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They dope them and show them off..that doesn't sound very good for the animals!
Just plain cruel, inhumane 😡
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Wow @janton that’s an amazing story...noble cause too
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This is a great post. I enjoyed it very very much!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!! All the pictures and embedded videos to watch, bang up job!
Howdy squirrelbait and thank you. I had a good time finding those photos!
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Howdy there today steem-ua! Thank you for the upvote!
Aw, what a heartwarming video and I am so happy that Dolph is now the legal owner of Gabriel. Thank God for people like Dolph! The cub is adorable.
Howdy tonight Butterfly! I'm so glad you liked the video and I agree, what Dolph and people like him are doing is amazing. They're literally saving species from extinction.
Your spam is really fucking annoying @hiroyamagishi aka @overall-servant aka @olaf123 and your spam-bot army. You spam everybody, we ask you to stop, you refuse to, We downvote you, you downvote us. This is not what Jesus would do with his Steem account.