Part One (Chapters 1 - 3)

Chapter One

The Dog and the Cheetah

            A lone survivor of lions’ wrath,

            a solo dog needed new mates.

            Allies of spots and of blackened backs

            were with whom she was bonded by fate.

            Black and brown and white is her coat.

            Her kind is the most distinct.

            Her whole pack dead, and less dogs to befriend –––

            the distinct is becoming…… extinct.

            ––––– Song of the Packless Dog

It was a bright afternoon over a South African savanna when a cheetah was scouting about with ten unusual companions of his. Whereas most male cheetahs form coalitions upon nearing maturity with two or three or so other male cheetahs, typically including littermates, this cheetah had been found orphaned as a cub with no siblings near him nor in proximity to his nest. He was too young to have been able to follow his mother whenever she searched for prey, and one day, she went on what turned out to be her final hunt.

The vulnerable cub was well-guarded from predators. Much waiting was done for his mother to return, during which much searching was done for littermates who might have wandered away from the nest. When the reality of the circumstance was indisputable, the orphaned cheetah was taken off with a wholly different upbringing in mind for him.

His rescuer was a painted dog, known also as an African wild dog, who was no ordinary specimen of her species. She was part of a pack of wild dogs who fell victim to a pride of lions, out of which only she survived. She was fortunately able to make a friendly acquaintance in a spotted hyena who introduced her to their clan, with the clan almost immediately regarding her as an adopted member. In her mind, it was morbidly ironic that her pack being killed by one of the painted dogs' two competing alpha predator species had led her to befriend members of the painted dogs' other competing alpha predator species.

She lost her pack, just like the cheetah cub lost his mother and siblings. The difference was that the painted dog was independent enough to venture around until she found new comradery, whilst the cub being alone would have guaranteed that he would perish. With her volunteering her responsibility for an orphaned cheetah cub, her first thought was surely to find a nest of similarly aged cheetah cubs to sneak him into? And hope the mother would accept him? Most certainly, a cheetah being raised amongst a clan of spotted hyenas would have been outside the natural order of things? Granted, a painted dog living amongst spotted hyenas may justifiably be considered by some to be unnatural, but the wild dog could at least assist them in hunting.

The questions posed in the previous paragraph are valid questions. However, just like the painted dog in this story was an unusual painted dog, the cheetah cub in question was an unusual cheetah. An extremely rare mutation of cheetah exists known as the king cheetah, and that is what the cub was. Normal cheetahs have yellow coats with small black spots, whereas the coats of king cheetahs have large black blotches of irregular patterns, and three black stripes that run down their backs.

The cub's appearance reminded the painted dog of her own coat markings, her species getting the name 'painted dog' from the irregular black, brown, and white patterns that make up their coats. Upon discovering the young king cheetah, she honestly did not know that he was a cheetah. His atypical coat markings convinced her that he was a cheetah-leopard hybrid, which left her wildly curious as to the mental states of a cheetah and a leopard who would have wasted their genetics in such a way. She did remind herself that she had presented herself to a male hyena in her adoptive clan, although given what happened to her pack, was desperation an excuse for her to fall back on? Or did she still have no high ground from which to judge others? She decided on the latter.

With the painted dog believing that the cub was half cheetah and half leopard, she thought that no cheetah nor leopard mother would accept the offspring of a competing predator species. If the cub's mother had survived, the painted dog would have assumed that any female of whichever species who approached the cub’s nest was his mother. Even if a cheetah or leopard mother killing or rejecting him was not a concern, the painted dog wondered if “cheetah-leopard” cubs having far larger black markings on their bright-colored coats than cheetah cubs and leopard cubs would ruin their camouflage that felids need later in their lives in order to sneak up toward their prey.

What was the painted dog’s solution to the matter of the orphaned king cheetah? Well, she was not the only member of her adoptive clan who was outside the spotted hyena species. She once attempted to steal a litter of black-backed jackal pups from their parents, but determined as the parents were to keep caring for their pups, the painted dog had no success in taking them. That did not stop her from helping to protect the pups, nor from sharing her prey with the jackal family.

The jackal family proved themselves worthy of the painted dog admitting into her clan by alerting her and each other whenever they sighted a cheetah, a hyena, a leopard, a lion, or another painted dog approach their territory. The jackal parents, and any of their offspring who helped raise the next litter, would forage for food and simultaneously aid the painted dog’s clan by keeping watch for lions, other painted dogs, other spotted hyenas, as well as prey whom only the hyenas or the wild dog could bring down. Having the family of jackals amongst them allowed the painted dog and her hyena clanmates to rest more, thereby reserving more stamina for hunting. The jackals benefitted in return from the clan’s protection, and from eating the clan’s food remains.

The painted dog was a respected member of her adoptive clan, and brought her hyena clanmates and her jackal family together for all of their benefit. Three species prospered from each other who would normally be wary of one another. The hyenas and the jackals would oppose nor question the painted dog’s decision to raise the king cheetah cub as her own offspring. The clan would protect him, and it would be needless to say that a “cheetah-leopard” surrounded by a clan of over seventy spotted hyenas would never kill any of their cubs nor jackal companions if that “cheetah-leopard” valued their life.

After losing her pack, the painted dog first became an adopted clan member. Afterward, she became a voluntary guardian and provider. In time, she became a mother. The cheetah cub was no less cherished by her than a pup of her own species would have been.

Chapter Two

A Diverse Coalition

Going back to the beginning of this story, it was a bright afternoon over a South African savanna when the recently matured king cheetah was scouting about with his painted dog mother and nine other unusual companions of his.

Flying above him and his terrestrial groupmates was an Egyptian vulture, serving as their eyes in the sky. Cheetahs and Egyptian vultures were both held in high regard in ancient Egypt. Cheetahs were used by ancient Egyptians for hunting, and kept as displays of royalty and wealth. Egyptian vultures were called the ‘pharaoh’s chicken’, and with their white plumage, yellow heads, and black flight feathers, it leaves little to no wonder how they inspired the awe of the Egyptians. From growing up with the company of an Egyptian vulture, the king cheetah had more information in his head about ancient Egypt than a cheetah at the farthest opposite end of the African continent would have any earthly business knowing.

Below the flying Egyptian vulture, walking alongside the king cheetah and the painted dog were three of their other companions. One of them was the brown hyena; another was the aardwolf, an insect-eating hyena; and the third was the also insectivorous bat-eared fox. The other five groupmates, the ring-necked spitting cobras, were coiled around the necks of the brown hyena, the king cheetah, and the painted dog, as well as around the waists of the aardwolf and the fox. The group of eleven was not out recreationally, and they were not just any group of eleven.

The painted dog had expressed her intentions to her “cheetah-leopard” son, for once he reached independent age, of searching for a pack of painted dogs that would have been small enough for her to have integrated with. A pack with too many painted dogs in it would very likely have killed her. The king cheetah wanted to help his mother in her search for a second pack, and he assigned different roles to each participant in his search group. The Egyptian vulture kept watch from the sky, as mentioned.

• The brown hyena was the "jaws" of the group, able to fend off any cheetah, leopard, hostile painted dog, or other brown hyena. Brown hyenas are smaller than spotted hyenas, and travel more often without clanmates, so he was not overly intimidating to the point of scaring off any painted dogs whom the group was hoping to find.

• For the far greater threats posed by lions, spotted hyena clans, and hostile painted dog packs, the ring-necked spitting cobras served as the defense. Seeing the hoods of five spitting cobras standing in every which direction around the group would have sent a pride of lions running away if they got too close. Spitting cobras can shoot blinding venom into a predator's eyes from a ten-foot distance.

• The bat-eared fox was the "ears" of the group, with ears five inches tall that serve his insectivorous species by detecting termites up to twelve inches underground. He would obviously have been the first within the group to hear a surprise attack coming, or hear painted dog vocalizations from a distance, which allowed him to alert the group on immediate notice if need be.

• The aardwolf did not have any specific capabilities for the group's benefit, but with a brown hyena, a "cheetah-leopard," and a painted dog in the group, an insect-eating small mammal besides the bat-eared fox would have served to make the group appear more inclusive to any non-threatening painted dogs.

The selection of groupmates seems quite strategic for such an animal as the cheetah who is hardly known to affiliate with any creature outside their species. How did the king cheetah come to have such extensive company apart from his painted dog mother, their black-backed jackal family, and their spotted hyena clan? Which was already more company than normal for a cheetah?

It began with the king cheetah being told during his upbringing that he was the offspring of a cheetah and a leopard, hence him being called a ‘cheetah-leopard’. He eventually attracted the attention of the Egyptian vulture, who was the only creature in the landscape who did not believe that he was a cheetah-leopard. Given the stripes on the king cheetah’s back, the vulture believed that he was a hybrid of a cheetah and a striped hyena, in spite of the fact that striped hyenas are not native to southern Africa. Striped hyenas, like cheetahs and Egyptian vultures, were kept by ancient Egyptians as symbols of power.

The Egyptian vulture was fascinated by the king cheetah’s coat markings, his relationship with his hyena clan, and also by his relationship with the clan’s jackal family. In ancient Egyptian religion, Anubis is the god of death, mummification, and the afterlife, depicted with the head of an African wolf –– which was classified previously as the African golden jackal, but is nonetheless more comparable in size and social behavior to jackals than the species is to European and North American wolves. It is speculated that the carcass-scavenging habits of jackals and African wolves made them attributed by the ancient Egyptians to their god of death.

The king cheetah learned much from his vulture friend about ancient Egyptian reverence of various animals, including hyenas and jackals. Among the other things that the vulture taught him was that ancient Egyptians generally admired felids more than canids for their greater independence, contrary to many people in other societies around the world who would prefer domestic dogs over domestic cats for being more social. However, on account of big cats being stealth predators, and the “cheetah-leopard” having been raised to believe that he was camouflage-impaired due to his bright-colored coat having black markings that were abnormally large for a cheetah or a leopard, his confidence was undermined by the thought of himself being a functionally insignificant predator.

Naturally, the king cheetah having been raised by a painted dog amongst a clan of hyenas and a family of jackals, combined with the Egyptian vulture educating him on animals who were treasured in ancient Egyptian civilization, had made for a highly curious cat. He grew up very observant of all the creatures around him, whether among his clan or complete strangers. He also thought that his observations would perhaps help him discover his place in the Animal Kingdom. After all, what animal would have a stronger identity crisis than a “cheetah-leopard” who was raised by a painted dog amongst hyenas and jackals, but who lacks a cheetah’s stealth, a leopard’s strength, a painted dog’s hunting stamina, a hyena’s jaw power, and a jackal’s family unit?

Among the many things that the king cheetah observed was the hunting advantage that spotted hyenas have over lion prides, which makes spotted hyenas more successful predators. Since spotted hyenas are much smaller predators than lions, they have the advantage of one member from a hunting group being able to non-alarmingly approach a herd of ungulates (such as wildebeest and zebras) in order to assess the oldest or weakest individual for the hunting group to chase and take down.

The king cheetah also noticed the hunting advantage that his mother had whenever she was alone or with the black-backed jackals. Antelope either did not fear a painted dog without packmates, or did not fear a painted dog who was unusually tolerant of having jackals around them. He also observed the method by which the Egyptian vulture preyed upon ostrich eggs. Egyptian vultures use stones to break open ostrich eggs, making them one of the only birds of prey in Africa currently known to use tools.

A hunter as supposedly disadvantaged as the “cheetah-leopard” would need all the luck they can get in order to thrive. As the king cheetah matured, he started to form a coalition unlike the standard cheetah coalition.

* * *

As explained previously, the king cheetah had the aardwolf, the bat-eared fox, the brown hyena, the Egyptian vulture, and the ring-necked cobras in his search group as they scouted about for a pack of painted dogs suitable for his mother to have joined. The cheetah had assembled the different species since his adolescence.

He had taken figurative notes from the hunting techniques of his painted dog mother and their spotted hyena clan, and created his own multi-species hunting strategies. He did assist his clan in hunting, but he and his mother always ate after the high-ranking female hyenas. With the king cheetah hunting his own prey, he and his mother both enjoyed fresher meat.

• The brown hyena was involved in one of the cheetah's devised hunting strategies. With brown hyenas being a weaker species than spotted hyenas, the brown hyena was more non-suspectable to ungulates, allowing him to casually walk up behind an ungulate to deliver a bone-cracking bite to one of their hind legs. The wounded ungulate was then vulnerable to the cheetah delivering a killing bite to the throat, with enough meat being provided for the hyena was well.

• The aardwolf and the bat-eared fox were both settled in abandoned burrows near the cheetah's clan. To all of their benefit, the cheetah formulated a hunting tactic that involved him walking around with either the aardwolf or the fox following him and continuously "biting" at him. An ungulate would be put off guard by the cheetah supposedly allowing a 'termite-licker' to push him around, which allowed him to get close enough for a guaranteed kill. In return, the aardwolf and the fox would feed on the insects they found on any of the scraps left by the cheetah.

• The cheetah was fascinated by spitting cobras for their ability to ward off threats vastly larger than themselves without so much as a single bite from their fangs. He was also impressed by the ring-necked spitting cobras' technique of playing dead in order to kill prey more easily, which he used to his own hunting advantage by carrying "dead" cobras in his mouth. The cheetah taking to "hunting" prey as venomous as a cobra was too nonsensical of a sight to an ungulate for them to have regarded him as a serious threat, which allowed him to get close enough for the cobra to slither out of his jaws, permitting him to take down the ungulate. For their cooperation, the ring-necked cobras were provided mice and toads hunted by the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox on the cheetah's instructions.

The king cheetah never had any luck, even with the support of his search group, in finding a pack of painted dogs for his mother to have joined. His mother was content regardless with having the company of her hyena clanmates, her jackal family, her cheetah son’s companions, and her cheetah son who chose to stay amongst their clan.

A cheetah-leopard hybrid, like the king cheetah was believed to have been, would not have had the genetic purity to procreate; and it was unlikely that a supposed half-cheetah with “camouflage-disabling” large black markings would have been accepted into a coalition of male cheetahs. The king cheetah, as far as he could tell, had no legitimate nor sensical reason to abandon the companionship, hunting aid, and security of his clan.

Even though the group never found new packmates for the king cheetah’s mother, their time searching was never time wasted. Finding food was just as good as finding painted dogs, and the cheetah had every one of his hunting strategies at his disposal with the aardwolf, the bat-eared fox, the brown hyena, and the ring-necked cobras with him. Of course, having his mother accompanying them would make prey all the easier to take down.

Alternatively, the brown hyena could use his sense of smell to trace a carcass or a fresh kill. If it was a decaying carcass, he and the Egyptian vulture could scavenge while the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox ate at the insects. If it was a fresh kill made by a cheetah or a leopard, he could steal the prey for himself, the Egyptian vulture, the king cheetah, and the painted dog to devour. The act of an animal stealing food from another may seem dishonorable to some humans, but for a wild creature driven by hunger, there is no such thing as a fairly earned meal.

* * *

During the bright afternoon detailed at the beginning of this chapter, the king cheetah and the painted dog were being entertained from hearing the conversation between their fox and hyena companions about the ecosystem’s largest species, the elephant, having a nasal appendage as lengthy as the neck of the ecosystem’s tallest species, the giraffe. The theory was proposed that if a giraffe chokes, the elephant could use their trunk to push the lodged food down the giraffe’s throat, saving them from suffocating. As unlikely as that theory was to be tested, the exercise of bizarre thought humored the cheetah and his mother.

The ring-necked cobras were more silent during the group’s outings, content with simply observing the natural scenery surrounding them as they were coiled around their mammalian groupmates, although listening to the fox and the hyenas discuss their theory about elephant trunks and choking giraffes was sure providing them extra amusement. They are identified as ‘ring-necked’ cobras for having one or two light-colored crossbands on the undersides of their throats, with yellowish stripes running all the way down the back of their dark-colored bodies. The cobras enjoyed being out of their dirt burrows, viewing their native landscape without concern over being hunted and preyed upon by honey badgers, mongooses nor snake-eagles.

The aardwolf and the bat-eared fox, despite being the smallest mammals in the group, were the most nonchalant about premature death. In an inescapable situation involving such a threat as a baboon, a big cat, a large hyena, or a painted dog, there would not be much that one could do to save themselves from being killed if they were a canid or hyena with a mouth for consuming ants instead of tearing flesh. Being at peace with the fact that they were puny, the aardwolf dreamed of her corpse being eaten by a lion, whereas the fox preferred his to be eaten by a honey badger. The aardwolf wanted her body to leave the earth as prey ‘fit for a king’, whilst the fox wanted to go out as a feast for a small carnivore instead of a side dish for a large predator.

Suddenly, the bat-eared fox picked up the sound of an intense scuffle a good distance away from the group. The sound was of an ungulate being pinned to the ground and struggling to save their life, and the fox’s five-inch ears did not detect the cries of painted dogs nor spotted hyenas, indicating that a big cat was attempting to make the kill. The group had already ended their day’s search for other painted dogs, so they could redirect their attention towards finding food.

It was unknown if a cheetah, a leopard, or a lion was doing the hunting. The group began making their way towards the location of the noise, with the Egyptian vulture flying ahead to identify whether the big cat was a lion or one from whom they could steal the prey.

The bat-eared fox soon heard a long roar as they made their way towards the site of the noise, which ruled out the likelihood of a cheetah. A leopard would still have been small enough for the brown hyena to have chased off.

When the group entered close proximity to the scene of the scuffle, the Egyptian vulture flew back down to ground level to notify them that the big cat involved was, indeed, a leopard. He also informed them that the situation was vastly different from what they were expecting.

The leopard was lethally impaled by the horns of an antelope whom she was trying to kill. The leopard was evidently female because two leopard cubs had just been orphaned. They just recently turned old enough to have accompanied their mother on her hunts, but they were quickly left vulnerable without her protection.

The king cheetah was mindful so as to not intimidate the defenseless cubs, given the larger sizes of himself, the brown hyena, and the painted dog compared to the sizes of the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox. He had the aardwolf slowly approach the cubs, with the rest of the group keeping a distance behind her. He did not want her to scare the cubs by walking towards them upright, so he instructed her to keep low to the ground as she made her way towards the cubs.

The aardwolf was told not to go right up to them, but to roll onto her side when she got closer to them. After she did that, the leopard cubs waited for fifteen to twenty seconds before one of them curiously approached her. The other cub quickly followed suit, and the cubs began playing around with the small hyena.

The king cheetah then instructed the bat-eared fox to gradually approach the cubs whilst keeping low to the ground. The cubs shifted their curiosity towards the fox when he got close enough to them, after which the cheetah and the painted dog began slowly crawling toward them. The brown hyena and the ring-necked spitting cobras stood guard, with the Egyptian vulture keeping watch from the highest perch of the nearest tree.

While it may seem noble of the group to have attempted to save the orphaned cubs, it should be pointed out that it was not a charitable act. There was a specific factor that drew the king cheetah’s interest towards the leopard cubs. One of them was melanistic, or in other words, a black leopard.

Black leopards are extremely rare in Africa, whereas their populations in Asia are relatively prevalent. Their melanistic appearance benefits them immensely in the Asian continent, where a lot of camouflage is provided for them by the shadows of forest trees. Black leopards do not have that hunting advantage in much of Africa’s landscape, and reportings of black leopards in the African continent have currently been documented in very few of its countries. Perhaps surprisingly, they have been reported in open savanna where forested areas were relatively far away.

Upon seeing the leopard cubs, the king cheetah was willing to bet his life on his conviction that he was not just a “cheetah-leopard,” but the hybrid of a cheetah and a black leopard. He thought that was the most sensical theory, due to his black coat markings being exponentially larger than those of a cheetah or a normal leopard.

Since black leopards are so scarce in Africa, the king cheetah believed that he was a half-brother of the orphaned leopard cubs. He normally would not have concerned himself with any orphaned creature whom he found, but he felt obligated to rescue the two leopard cubs who he thought were related to him. Also, since he supposedly could not procreate, on account of being an alleged hybrid, he was not about to pass up the opportunity to raise his “half-siblings.”

The king cheetah and the painted dog waited for both of the cubs to tire before they grasped them with their mouths, carrying them off to be raised under the protection of their clan. They could only hope that their matriarch would agree to her clan providing that protection.

            A felid was born of blotches and stripes,

            found by the Packless Dog.

            A cheetah’s speed, but no leopard’s might –––

            a hereditary flaw.

            A coat of yellow and too much black,

            the felid was sure to starve.

            With help from the Dog and from her clan,

            his survival odds would enlarge.

 

            ––––– Song of the Cheetah-Leopard

Chapter Three

Three Rescues More

There was a superstitious belief within the African landscape, believed by many of the animals and denied by many of the others, that black leopards are embodiments of great misfortune. The same superstition would not have been widely believed by Asiatic creatures, due to black leopards being far more plentiful in Asia. The king cheetah could only hope that his clan’s matriarch would be comfortable with a black leopard cub being amongst her clan, and that she would not lose too many subordinates if she accepted the cub into her clan.

It was approaching sunset around the time that the king cheetah and the painted dog made it back to their clan with the two orphaned leopard cubs. The clan had begun feeding on a rhinoceros mother whom their black-backed jackal companions found trapped in dried mud. The rhinoceros’ skin was too thick for the jackals to have bitten into themselves, but they luckily had the powerful jaws of their hyena clanmates to make the rhinoceros meat accessible to them. The thought of a rhinoceros being eaten alive may offend some readers, as rhinoceri and elephants in vulnerable situations are susceptible to predation by lions and spotted hyenas. Alas, the Animal Kingdom is completely indifferent to feelings and pain in favor of survival, and only survival. Furthermore, the rhinoceros would have taken even longer to die if she was left in the dried mud.

The rhinoceros mother’s eleven-month-old calf was standing a distance away, as they apparently did not become trapped in the mud with their mother. The king cheetah and the painted dog noticed the rhinoceros calf as they approached their clan, with the mother having become numb at that point to the hyenas’ jaws tearing into her. It helped her that spotted hyenas are fast eaters, in order to consume as much meat as possible without their prey being stolen by lions.

The brown hyena and the ring-necked spitting cobras were dismissed from guarding the king cheetah and the painted dog as soon as they made it back to their clan’s territory with the two leopard cubs. The brown hyena carried the cobras, coiled around his neck, back to their burrows. The aardwolf and the bat-eared fox curiously wandered toward the rhinoceros calf upon returning to the king cheetah’s clan.

When the king cheetah and the painted dog were close enough to their clanmates for them to have seen both of the cubs, some of the spotted hyenas reacted concerningly upon seeing the black leopard cub. The clan matriarch and the jackal family seemed indifferent, but curious as to why the cheetah and his mother returned with two leopard cubs, particularly with one of them being melanistic.

The hyena matriarch approached the king cheetah and the painted dog. “What is the purpose of bringing these cubs here?”

“We found their mother killed,” answered the king cheetah. “My whole upbringing, I have been called a cheetah-leopard. I believe that these cubs are my half-siblings, as I am sure that I am the offspring of a cheetah and a dark leopard. Why else would I have bright skin, yet such large dark markings? Neither a cheetah nor a bright-coated leopard has markings as large as mine are.”

The hyena matriarch thought that was a considerable statement, as well as an interesting one. “I see, but assuming I am correct and you are interested in raising these cubs, why is that so? Male cheetahs and male leopards do not raise young, and you are male yourself.”

“A male I am, but my bloodline is tainted as a result of me being of unnatural procreation, so I cannot efficiently breed. I have an opportunity now to assist in the survival of the felids by raising my half-siblings under the protection of your clan, just as I have been raised under.”

The painted dog spoke on her cheetah son’s behalf. “My son has assisted in many hunts for our clan. Is the right for him to see these cubs toward maturity the least that is owed to him?”

The king cheetah could have attempted to raise the cubs without the clan’s involvement, but it was as obvious to the hyena matriarch as it was to the cheetah and the painted dog that the black leopard cub would have been much more vulnerable to any creature who would have wanted to exterminate her. Both of the cubs were female.

“I understand your wish,” said the hyena matriarch to the king cheetah. “I have no qualms with what you ask of, but there are members of my clan who seem as though they are discomforted by the thought. They would not be obliged to remain in my clan, so is one dark leopard cub and their littermate worth losing ten or fifteen members of my clan? If not more?”

The king cheetah knew that would be an inevitable valid argument, for which he had sent the Egyptian vulture to retrieve a friend of his to speak for him. Luckily for him, his friend arrived just in time, letting out a non-aggressive roar to inform the hyena clan of his appearance.

His friend was the white lion, who led a pride of lions not far from the king cheetah’s clan. He was the only white lion male within fifty square miles of the clan’s territory, and the mightiest lion within a hundred square miles. Contrary to the misperception that white lions are less likely to survive than normal lions, white lions benefit from moonlit nights, sandy riverbeds, tall vegetation, and winter grasses to the point of being equally successful hunters as normal-colored lions.

No creature in the landscape was more curious of the king cheetah’s capabilities than the white lion, with his coat and his mane as white as ice. How the “cheetah-leopard” would triumph in Mother Nature’s test of survival, with his coat as bright-colored as a cheetah’s or white lion’s and his black markings drastically larger than those of cheetahs and leopards, was a source of fascination like nothing else for the white lion.

The hyena matriarch greeted the white lion. “I suppose you have something to say relating to the cheetah-leopard’s finding?”

“You are correct. I mean not to boast, but I am regarded by many inhabitants in our lands as a personification of purity and royalty. Why are there so many within your clan who seem perturbed by the dark leopard cub, seeing as I can attest that there is no harm in a dark leopard?”

There was a silence before the white lion continued speaking. “For such a being as the dark leopard who is believed to bring bad fortune onto any creature with whom they cross paths, I consider it quite a lucky coincidence that the dark leopard cub was brought to your presence at the same time that your clan is feasting on a whole rhinoceros. Enough fresh meat will remain for the male hyenas in your clan, who always eat last, to fill themselves. If that is not a blessing, it would intrigue me to hear what you would consider to be such.”

The hyenas who were initially wary of the black leopard cub proceeded to look at each other as though they were considering all that the white lion said to them. After all, spotted hyenas in captivity have been observed displaying cooperative problem-solving skills that were superior to those of captive chimpanzees, which is not a feature of a non-intelligent animal. That said, were any of the spotted hyenas in the king cheetah’s clan seriously going to buy into a superstition that the white lion thought was obviously preposterous?

“You may mark my words that if I am wrong about the dark leopard cub, I am not so good a judge of a creature’s worth as a white king ought to be. If that were to be the case, then may I be regarded as inferior to the lineage of the cubs I exterminated upon winning my authority over my pride.” Whenever a lion takes over a pride, he will kill the former pride ruler’s cubs in order to make the lionesses receptive to mating. There would have been no insult greater to a lion than to have been told that his genetics were unworthy of passing on.

“I have something to say,” a deep voice said abruptly.

It was the rhinoceros mother, who still had her consciousness. “I place no fault onto the dark leopard cub for my fate. As soon as I became stuck in this mud, I was relying on the mercy of any flesh-tearers who would help me perish more quickly. Soon, I will be a mountain of leavings for the vultures to drive their beaks into. I understand the circle of life just as fully as those whom I am nourishing.”

She then spoke to the king cheetah. “I believe it to be fate that brought you to your half-siblings, if these cubs truly are of relation to you. May I ask one thing of you?” The cheetah walked towards the rhinoceros mother, signaling to her that he was giving her his full attention. He figured he knew exactly what she was about to ask.

“My calf is nearby. As you raise your half-siblings, let my daughter be of value to you and your clan so she may live to breeding age.” Fortunately for her, the king cheetah had already been thinking about the rhinoceros calf. He was going to ask the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox, whom the calf was already acquainted with, to identify the calf’s sex until the rhinoceros mother confirmed that her calf was female.

The king cheetah turned towards the hyena matriarch. “Indeed, the calf could be of immense use to us.”

“How so?” asked the hyena matriarch. “Would devouring the calf not be more convenient for our clan?” The white lion was intending to claim the rhinoceros calf as his own prey, but he too was curious about the king cheetah’s reasoning.

“The calf and her mother are both wide-lipped rhinoceri. Have you noticed that the rhinoceri in our lands have either beak-shaped upper lips or widely shaped upper lips? The wide-lipped females are more social than the beak-lipped rhinoceri, and what luck that the calf in our presence is a wide-lipped female.” The African rhinoceros species are classified by humans as the hook-lipped rhinoceros and the square-lipped rhinoceros, but seeing as humans are more likely than animals are to be familiar with hooks and polygons, ‘beak-lipped’ and ‘wide-lipped’ are also accurate names.

“That would seem to explain why the calf did not get stuck in the mud with her mother. The mother seems to have been foraging away from the group, whilst her calf was asleep and surrounded by other adult rhinoceri.” In his endless desire to better understand the species with whom he coexisted, the king cheetah had learned that groups of square-lipped rhinoceri consist of females and their calves, thanks to the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox having been able to identify the sexes of the adult rhinoceri as they searched their waste for dung beetles. It would be needless to say that the cheetah’s pursuit of knowledge proved to be most useful.

“Enlighten us as to how a rhinoceros’ social habits would benefit us,” requested the hyena matriarch. She had to press him, but she had no doubt that the king cheetah would be able to validate everything he was telling her. If any carnivorous mammal knew an exceptionally intelligent big cat when they saw one, it was a spotted hyena matriarch.

The king cheetah did, of course, support his reasoning. “I have seen mature wide-lipped females in groups of five or six, not counting their calves. If your clan protects this calf as she reaches adulthood, we could allow her to congregate with other wide-lipped females when she becomes old enough. Our clan would be able to offer enhanced protection for her fellow rhinoceri and their calves, and having a group of rhinoceri amongst our clan would be a perfect deterrence against territorial rivals for us as well.”

The father of the clan’s jackal family had a question of his own for the king cheetah. “What of the threat of lions, other than the white king’s pride? If we host a rhinoceros calf amongst our clan, would a sizable pride of hunger-driven lions be able to overpower our clan? And prey upon the calf?”

“You ask an important question, Father Jackal,” replied the king cheetah. “My cobra companions, with their ability to shoot blinding venom, can assist in deterring lions.”

“Even starving lions?” asked the hyena matriarch. “You know as well as I do that a mongoose will avoid a lion on their first impulse, but is quite able to fend off four lions at once as a last resort means of survival. You can imagine what an entire pride of lions would be capable of doing to our clan to satisfy their starvation. Would you be willing to bet on your half-siblings’ lives that the cobras would be enough to deter them in that circumstance?”

The king cheetah did not have an immediate answer to that question, but the white lion responded on his behalf. “Of any pride in many tens of miles, mine is the largest. That would remain so if half a dozen of my lionesses stayed within your clan until the rhinoceros calf becomes mature, on the condition that if I unexpectedly perish during that time, your clan will rescue and raise my cubs to preserve my bloodline.”

Every subordinate hyena in the clan was looking to their matriarch as though the king cheetah made all the sense in the African continent for why they should have raised the rhinoceros calf, and as though the white lion’s offer rendered the opportunity unpassable.

The Egyptian vulture had his say as well. “No creature has more knowledge of the Kingdom of the Pointed Mounds [the Great Pyramid of Giza] than us pharaoh’s chickens. I can confirm from many firsthand observations that the intellect of the cheetah-leopard, as you call him, is worthy of the pharaohs.”

The hyena matriarch had her mind made up prior to the Egyptian vulture voicing himself, but she took half a minute to act as though she was processing everything she had heard, the vulture having been no less significant to her. She then declared her decision, about both the rhinoceros calf and the leopard cubs.

“The cubs and the calf will be raised under our clan’s protection,” she announced. The clan’s subordinate female hyenas quickly proceeded to feast on the rhinoceros mother. The white lion began to make his way back towards his pride’s territory.

The king cheetah waited with his mother, the black-backed jackals, and the male spotted hyenas to dig his own teeth into some rhinoceros meat. The jackals killed the time by joining the aardwolf, the bat-eared fox, and the Egyptian vulture in acquainting themselves with the rhinoceros calf. Getting the calf accustomed to a clan of spotted hyenas would be an incremental process, so the male hyenas remained near their female clanmates.

The king cheetah had a moment with his painted dog mother before they approached the rhinoceros calf themselves. “What a set of circumstances this is. You and I, a clan of hyenas, a family of jackals, my circle of companions, and now two leopard cubs, a rhinoceros calf, and lionesses will all be sharing territory with each other, none of which would have ever been possible were it not for you. You united hyena and jackal. You did as superbly a job as any dog could have done in raising a felid, due to which I am here now with the chance of my own to raise young. Until you find other members of your kind to join, will you help me rear these cubs? I can think of no one more suitable to ask.”

The painted dog looked down towards the leopard cubs, and lowered her head to rub her snout against them. The cubs both swiped their paws against her snout, and then she gave her answer. “I never anticipated the surprises that you are full of. You are, yourself, a uniter of the pharaoh’s chicken, the shaggy [brown] hyena, the spitting cobras, and the termite-lickers [the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox.] Now you are also a uniter of leopard, lion, rhinoceros, and our clan. A creature would have to be very extraordinary to astound the white king, and you are extraordinary. I could leave our clan someday, but I decide now that I would enjoy staying in greater measure.”

The ”cheetah-leopard” did not yet complete his search for a sense of meaning in the Animal Kingdom, but having the big cat experience of being involved with cubs would at least make it feel more obsolete whether he was a hybrid or pure. He felt more like a big cat now than before.

The king cheetah and the painted dog carried the leopard cubs as they made their way toward the rhinoceros calf, who seemed comfortable enough with her new company. The brown hyena, who was looking to get some rhinoceros meat himself, returned to wait alongside the cheetah and his mother.

            Sand and winter and moonlight

            all hide the hunters of white.

            Strong as the lions of tawny brown,

            the white beasts have optimal brawn.

            Dignified as they are powerful –––

            wisdom and large canines, defining their skulls……

            And all prides led by mane of colorless hair

            are prophesized to thrive anywhere.

 

            ––––– Anthem for the White Lion