Free Republic

An Oregon man on safari in Africa ended up in a closer-than-expected encounter with a cheetah that jumped into the back seat of the SUV. A video captured by Peter Heistein on the Grand Ruaha Safari in Tanzania shows safari-goer Britton Hayes sitting still inside the tour vehicle while the cheetah watches him from the seat behind him. The safari group said their attention had been on a cheetah that jumped on the hood of their vehicle when the second big cat surprised them by jumping into the back seat. "We started to notice the cheetahs became curious of the...

This adorable footage shows the moment a wildlife volunteer is reunited with a cheetah he helped care for a year ago. When he was volunteering at Cheetah Experience in South Africa, Dolph Volker bonded with 10-month-old cheetah cub Gabriel. He spent a lot of time with the cub, feeding him, playing and cuddling him. When he returned to the sanctuary, Mr Volker was reunited with the big cat, and their embrace is adorable.

Four villagers in north-east Kenya have chased down and captured two cheetahs which were killing their goats. The owner of the goats told the BBC that the cheetahs had been picking off his animals one by one, day by day. The men waited until the hottest part of the day before launching the chase over a distance of four miles (6.4km). The cheetahs got so tired they could not run any more. The villagers captured them alive and handed them over to the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Any port in a storm... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD6wdrVFc0g

When it comes to hunting down humans running speeds, MIT's cheetah might come second to Boston Dynamics' own high-velocity quadruped, but by substituting pneumatics with motors, MIT's version apparently runs far more efficiently. At the recent International Conference on Robotics and Automation, the Institute of Technology showed of its newest version, which reached a top speed of 13.7 mph. To accomplish this, the runner still needs parallel support bars to constrain movement in one dimension, reducing any roll, yaw -- and the chances of a pretty expensive fall. The team says the new version's cost of transport (COT is...

File this under the nascent category of "frightened rodents on YouTube." A certain clip from the nature documentary BBC's Africa, narrated by David Attenborough has caught the attention of internet meme-makers, and sure enough it's now making the rounds online. The 20 second snippet of footage takes place somewhere on the great continent, and what little context we have depicts a spotted cheetah on the hunt. "He's blown it," Attenborough says, as a succession of prey high-tails it out of the cheetahs hungry path. Last is our little friend the squirrel, who drops his own tasty lunch to head for...

Beautiful pictures that are Totally Unexpected... Will Surprise almost anyone!!!

A woman tourist from Britain in a South African game park was mauled by two cheetahs in a horrific attack. Violet D'Mello was petting the "tame" cats in the petting area of Kragga Kamma Game Park with other tourists when they began attacking an eight-year-old girl. The woman watched in horror as they clawed and bit her leg ... Suddenly, the cheetahs left the girl and began eyeing the little girl's seven-year-old brother who was trying to flee. Just as D'Mello tried to intervene, the two animals turned their attention to her.

South Africa: Man Photographs Cheetahs Attacking Wife The photos taken by a tourist from Scotland show his wife on the ground, hair flying, blood on her neck, with two cheetahs nearby (Violet D'Mello poses with a cheetah while being photographed by her husband Archibald during a visit to Kragga Kamma game reserve near Port Elizabeth, South Africa.) JOHANNESBURG — The photos taken by a tourist from Scotland show his wife on the ground, hair flying, blood on her neck, with two cheetahs nearby. The Port Elizabeth Herald reported Friday that Violet D'Mello of Aberdeen, Scotland, was attacked by cheetahs on...

South Africa’s restored Cheetah fighters make Ecuador debut By: Stephen Trimble Washington DC Ecuador has received 12 ex-South African Air Force Cheetah C/D fighters, ordered in late 2010, from Denel Aviation. Ecuador President Rafael Correa Delgado announced on 21 January that the entire batch of 12 fighters has arrived from South Africa. The 10 C-model and two D-model Cheetahs had been in storage since their retirement from service in South Africa four years ago. Ecuadorian officials visited South Africa in April 2009 to start negotiations, and signed a $78 million contract in December 2010. The deal also includes five years...

Cheeta the chimpanzee, who starred in Tarzan movies alongside Olympic swimmer-turned-actor Johnny Weissmuller in the 1930s and ranked #1 on EW.com’s list of the 10 Best Monkeys at the Movies, died of kidney failure Saturday. According to the Suncoast Primary Sanctuary’s outrach director, Cheeta was “roughly 80 years old, loved fingerpainting and football and was soothed by nondenominational Christian music.” Roughly 80?! Way to live, chimp! That’s amazing! (Cheeta was an anomaly; the average zoo chimp dies around age 35-45.) I sure hope my favorite chimp lives that long.

PALM HARBOR, Florida (AP) — Cheetah, the chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s, has died at age 80 a Florida animal sanctuary said. The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor announced that Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure.

This is the incredible moment a fearless warthog gave a new meaning to the term fast food - by dramatically cheating a cheetah who wanted it for dinner. The warthog was minding its own business in the Tshukudu Private Game Reserve in South Africa, blissfully unaware that it was being stalked by a hungry predator. The cheetah is the fastest-moving animal in the world and, when it sets its sights on something to eat, the usual outcome is not good for the prey. But, combining a never-say-die survival instinct with stunning bravery, the warthog performed a quick U-turn and charged...

SA sells Cheetah jet fighters to Ecuador Denel Aviation has sold 12 Cheetah C supersonic fighter aircraft to Ecuador, the company said on Monday. An agreement to conclude the deal was recently signed by Denel Aviation CEO Mike Kgobe in Ecuador's capital, Quito. Denel Aviation is the design authority of the single-seat fighter that was locally developed as a variant of the Mirage III in the 1980s. In terms of the agreement with the Ecuadorian Air Force, Denel Aviation would continue to provide a comprehensive maintenance and support service for at least five years following the sale, with an option...

Kiburi, a 10-day-old cheetah cub, opened his eyes today at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park's Animal Care Center. He took in the world, gobbled down a bottle, played for a little while, and then went back fast asleep in the window of the nursery. Safari Park guests can see the 1.4-pound bundle of fur in the nursery's window. While he sleeps between 20 and 22 hours a day, he gets a bottle of special formula every 2 ½ hours and also has taken to playing with an adorable ferociousness. Of the 134 cheetahs born at the San Diego Zoo...

Hello little antelope, would you like to play with us? Coming from three deadly cheetahs, it's the kind of invitation that's best refused - but amazingly, this impala escaped unscathed from its encounter. Luckily for the youngster, it seems these three male cheetahs simply weren't hungry.

Tiger Woods' suspicious spouse, Elin Nordegren, busted the girl-crazy golfer by using his cellphone to text his mistress - while pretending to be him, a new report says. "I miss you," Nordegren tapped out, according to the report. "When are we seeing each other again." After Rachel Uchitel texted back, Nordegren called her rival. When she answered, the angry wife reportedly said, "I knew it was you." "Oh f---," Uchitel reportedly replied.

Elin Nordegren Could Be Paid More Than $50 Million Extra For Sticking With Tiger Woods The wife of Tiger Woods will miss out on more than $50 million if she pursues a legal split because of his string of affairs, top American divorce lawyers have revealed. By Philip Sherwell in New York 19 Dec 2009 Raoul Felder, a celebrity divorce attorney whose client roster has included the former wives of Martin Scorsese and Tom Clancy, said that Elin Nordegren would be "financially ill-advised" to walk out on the philandering golfer for good. Miss Nordegren, 29, was widely reported last week...

US golfer gave exclusive interview to sister paper of National Enquirer in return for tabloid's silenceRepresentatives acting on behalf of Tiger Woods brokered a deal two years ago to bury a tabloid story of an extramarital affair, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. It said representatives for the golfer acted after the National Enquirer threatened to publish pictures of Woods taken in a parked car with Mindy Lawton, a Florida waitress. The alleged deal, which the Wall Street Journal claims was made in August 2007, saw Woods give an exclusive cover interview and photo spread to a sister magazine of...

Tiger Woods has been voted Athlete of the Decade by members of The Associated Press, his 10 years of incomparable golf outweighing nearly three weeks of a salacious sex scandal. Just like so many of his 64 victories worldwide and 12 majors dating to 2000, it wasn't much of a contest. Woods received 56 of the 142 votes cast by AP member editors. More than half of the ballots were returned after his Nov. 27 car accident which set off the sensational tales of infidelity that have tarnished Woods' image. Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won the Tour de...