TITAN

Bonding

Recently separated from their mother and not yet fully adept at hunting on their own, independent male and female cheetah cubs will stick together for many more months to master their hunting skills. Having been born together, grown together, played together, and faced all the hurdles of survival, the bonding of the siblings and affection between them is truly

worth a watch. But this wont last forever.

As the female sibling becomes sexually mature, she will eventually split from her brother to lead a largely independent life. The male on the other hand, if solitary, faces a life or death scenario as alone, he wont be able to survive in the wild. Forming a coalition with other male cheetahs is his best bet as it increases hunting success and acts as a defense against other predators. But finding a group to be part of is in itself a challenge of its own.

The males will roam until they can find and defend a territory. This process can take a few years and males may travel hundreds of miles, being moved out of one area to another, pushed on by more experienced male coalitions. Life in the wild is nothing but one challenge followed by the next. It truly is the survival of the fittest.

We > Me #19

"We patronize the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." 

 Henry Beston