Nature’s Corner – The stork visits Rietvlei Nature Reserve

24/03/2022

| By Alana Bailey

Njozi the cheetah is famous (or is it notorious?) in Pretoria. Her name is the Swahili word for “dreams”. On 4 May 2021, she escaped from Rietvlei Nature Reserve and had the neighbourhood around the reserve in a tizzy. By 9 May 2021, however, she was once again seen in the reserve and everyone could relax. How she returned, remains a mystery.

On 14 March this year, she surprised the game wardens when she made her appearance with five cubs! It was estimated that they were about six weeks old at that stage. For the first six weeks of their lives, cubs will be hidden by their mothers and their dens will also be changed regularly. After that, the cubs start moving around in the veld with their mothers, eating the prey she catches.

Cheetahs have been relocated to this reserve since 2002 and it forms part of a national breeding program. Males are rotated to ensure that the gene pool of the cheetahs remains healthy and the cubs that are born here, are also eventually relocated to other reserves as they mature. In September 2021, a male, Thaba, was released here as a partner for Njozi.

Most people know that cheetahs are the fastest land animals and can reach speeds of 80 to 128 kilometres per hour. What is less well known, is that females usually lead a single nomadic life, except when they are raising their cubs. Males are sometimes single, or live in coalition with other males. The gestation period is three months and cheetahs can give birth to three to eight cubs. The cubs’ napes, shoulders and backs are initially covered with long, grey-blue hair to camouflage them, but eventually fall out. From as young as six months they can start killing prey themselves, but only at about twenty months will the cubs leave their mother. Males reach an average lifespan of ten years and females fourteen to fifteen years.

Njozi and her five cubs apparently enjoy the attention they are getting and there are many videos and photos of them published by visitors to Rietvlei Nature Reserve on social media.