There go the boys
The Coffee Boys leave Ndutu
It seems that there has been some upheaval in the territories surrounding Ndutu. These territories have always been hotly contested with the males holding them changing on a fairly regular basis. Over the past few years several coalitions have held their own down there, including Howard and Buffett, Hamisi and Marando and most recently Tetley and Twinings have moved into the area near Twin Hills. However no other coalition has been as successful at holding their territories as the Coffee Boys, Espresso, Latte and Mocha. These three were cubs of Lady Godiva born in mid 2005, making them just over five years old now. The average life expectancy of a male cheetah is just 3 years old which means they are doing pretty well, especially as they chose the more stressful life of a territorial coalition. They were first seen scent-marking (a good indication of territoriality) in December 2007 and although their territory has moved around since then, they had nevertheless become a well established sight for visitors to the area. You can therefore imagine the Project’s surprise when these three were suddenly seen near the Loiyangalani River in the heart of the Serengeti plains, at least 40km away from home! Unfortunately the boys were looking pretty skinny at the time, although they were seen killing and feasting on a reedbuck that afternoon which was very good news. We don’t know for sure why the boys have left Ndutu – it could be that some new males have moved into and taken over their territory, Mocha has a healing cut on one of his back legs, or it could just be that they couldn’t find enough food down there. Hopefully the boys will reappear again soon, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens!