Serengeti Drought & Predator Drama: Cheetah Chase, Leopards, Gorillas & More

In this field diary from November 2013, Dr. Sherman J. Silber camps in the Serengeti to observe how a deepening equatorial drought—rains arriving later each year—reshapes animal reproduction, population dynamics, and family behavior. Expecting the short rains and vast herds of wildebeest and zebra, he finds parched plains instead, using the scene to argue that anyone doubting global warming should study the equator and the poles.

Captivated by cheetahs, he dispels a persistent zoo myth: they’re not “infertile”—they need mate choice across 20–30 animals; limited choice, not low sperm counts, thwarts breeding in captivity. He tracks a female cheetah and cubs struggling to find prey amid scarce gazelles and isolated impalas. Then comes a once-in-a-lifetime hunt: a cheetah launches a chase from far beyond the usual range, sprints well past its 10–12-second cardiovascular limit, and still brings down a lone impala. Both animals collapse—impala dead, cheetah unconscious—before the exhausted predator revives and, warily scanning for hyenas or lions, feeds with her cub.

Silber’s day overflows with stark vignettes of adaptation: an unstoppable two-inch-wide column of “army” ants surges past camp; an elephant, starved of browse, topples an acacia with astonishing force; a pair of giraffes attempts a precarious mating—high stakes when a fall can be fatal; a fearless, lightning-fast honey badger squares up to the Land Cruiser; hyenas, Africa’s maligned kleptoparasites, remind why their bone-crushing jaws inspire dread. A “miracle” leopard sequence unfolds too: a camouflaged mother perched above passing zebras, her 8-month-old sprawled on a lower limb, and a massive male dining covertly nearby.

The journey culminates in the misty mountain forests bordering Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda, where silverbacks, blackbacks, and infants regard the visitors with unhurried calm—eerily human. As dusk falls, a half-hour equatorial blaze of orange, red, and blue ignites the sky behind sculpted acacias—beauty set against ecological warning.