Chapter 3

 

Chapter Three

Three Rescues More

 

 

 

There was a superstitious belief in the African landscape, believed by many of its inhabitants and denied by many others, that black leopards were embodiments of immense misfortune. The same superstition would not have been widely believed by Asiatic creatures, due to black leopards being far more plentiful in the Asian continent. 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 when the king cheetah and the painted dog made it back to their clan’s territory 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 jackal family to have bitten into themselves, but they luckily had the powerful jaws of their hyena clanmates to make the meat accessible to them. The thought of a rhinoceros being eaten alive may offend some readers, as rhinoceroses and elephants in vulnerable positions are susceptible to being preyed upon by lions and spotted hyenas –– but Mother Nature is indifferent to sentiments and pain in favor of survival. Furthermore, spotted hyenas are speedy eaters, lacking the physiology and jaw structure that permit big cats to kill prey at the throat before eating; so before lions have the chance to steal prey from spotted hyenas, the hyenas need to consume as much meat as possible with fast pacing.

The rhinoceros mother’s calf of eleven months 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 calf while approaching their clan, with the mother having become numb at that point to the hyenas’ jaws biting into her.

The brown hyena and the ring-necked cobras were dismissed from guarding the king cheetah and the painted dog when they made it back to their clan’s territory with the pair of 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 with their larger companions.

When the king cheetah and the painted dog were close enough for their clanmates to have seen the cubs, some of the hyenas reacted concerningly upon seeing a black leopard cub. The clan matriarch and the jackal family were mostly surprised to see the melanistic cub, but also curious as to why the cheetah and his mother bothered to bring her and her littermate. Both of the cubs were female.

The hyena matriarch approached the king cheetah and the painted dog. “Why have you brought these cubs here?”

“We found their mother killed,” answered the king cheetah. “My whole life, I have been called a cheetah-leopard. I believe 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 such large dark markings on my bright coat? Neither a cheetah nor a standard leopard has markings as large as mine.”

The hyena matriarch thought that was a considerable statement, as well as an intriguing one. “I see, but assuming that 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 had been raised under.”

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

The king cheetah could have attempted to raise the cubs without the clan’s protection, but it was as obvious to the hyena matriarch as it was to him 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.

“I understand your wish,” said the hyena matriarch to the king cheetah. “I have no qualms with what you ask for, but there are members of my clan who seem 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 a significant portion of my clan?”

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, softly letting out a 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-colored lions, white lions benefit from moonlit nights, sandy riverbeds, tall vegetation, and winter grasses to the point of being equally successful hunters as normal lions.

The white lion volunteered to be the king cheetah’s big cat mentor in learning how to bring down prey, for no lion in the landscape was more curious of the cheetah’s capabilities. How a carnivore of odd origins such as the “cheetah-leopard” would overcome obstacles stemming from said origins to triumph in Mother Nature’s test of survival 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, as I can attest that there is no harm in a dark leopard?”

Silence followed the white lion’s question before being broken by him. “For a being such as the dark leopard who is believed to bring bad fortune onto any creature with whom they cross paths, I deem it a blessing that the dark leopard cub was brought to your presence at the same time that your clan is feasting on a whole rhinoceros. Fresh meat will remain for the male hyenas, who always eat last, to fill themselves. Disagree with me if you will, but I believe that there are no coincidences.”

The hyenas who were initially wary of the black leopard cub began exchanging looks 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 being mentioned, were any of the spotted hyenas in the king cheetah’s clan going to buy into a superstition that the white lion thought was 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 eradicated upon winning my authority over my pride.” When 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 any lion in the landscape than for his genetics to have been considered unworthy of passing on.

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

It was the rhinoceros mother, who was still conscious. “I place no fault onto the dark leopard cub for my fate. After I became trapped in this mud, I relied on the mercy of any flesh-tearers who would help me perish more quickly. Soon enough, I will be a mountain of leavings for the vultures to dig 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 she had his full attention. He figured he knew already what she was about to ask.

“My calf is nearby. As you rear 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 their sex until the rhinoceros mother confirmed that her offspring was female.

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

“How so?” inquired the hyena matriarch. “Would feeding on the calf not be more convenient for us than the effort that would be involved in raising her?” 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 wide-lipped rhinoceri. If you ever stopped to watch rhinoceri feed, have you noticed that they either have beak-shaped upper lips or widely shaped upper lips? The wide-lipped females are more social than the beak-lipped rhinoceros, 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 with humans being more likely than animals are to have familiarity with hooks and polygons, ‘beak-lipped’ and ‘wide-lipped’ are also accurate names.

“That would seem to explain why the calf did not become stuck in the mud also. Her mother seems to have been foraging away from the group, whilst her calf was asleep and surrounded by other adult rhinoceri.” In his desire to better understand the species with whom he coexisted, the king cheetah learned that groups of square-lipped rhinoceroses consist of females and their calves, thanks to the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox having been small enough to identify the sexes of adult rhinoceroses as they searched their waste for dung beetles. It would be needless to say that the cheetah having an endless 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 that he was telling her. If any carnivorous mammal knew an exceptionally intelligent big cat when they saw one, it was a spotted hyena matriarch.

Of course, the king cheetah supported his reasoning. “I have seen mature wide-lipped females in groups of five or six, not counting their calves. If our 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 about 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. 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 willing to challenge five 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 the hyena matriarch’s 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 ten of my lionesses stayed among your clan until the rhinoceros calf becomes mature, on the condition that if I unexpectedly perish during that time, your clan will permit my ten lionesses to rescue and raise my cubs to preserve my bloodline. My lionesses, your hyenas, the cobras, and in time, rhinoceri together will be most formidable.”

Every subordinate hyena in the clan was looking towards their matriarch as though the king cheetah made all the sense in the African continent for why caring for the rhinoceros calf was in their best interest, and as though the white lion’s proposition rendered the opportunity unpassable.

The Egyptian vulture had his say as well. “No creature has more knowledge of the Land of the Pointed Mounds [the Great Pyramid of Giza] than us pharaoh’s chickens. I can confirm from many observations that the intellect of the cheetah-leopard –– as you refer to him –– is worthy of the Mounds’ pharaohs, and will prove most beneficial to your clan.”

The hyena matriarch made up her mind prior to what the Egyptian vulture said, but took some time to act as though she was processing everything she had heard, the vulture being no less significant a voice to her. She then declared her decision, about both the rhinoceros calf and the leopard cubs.

“The calf and the cubs will be raised under our clan’s protection.” 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 and the painted dog waited with the black-backed jackals and the male spotted hyenas to drive their own teeth into some rhinoceros meat. The jackals decided to kill 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 the entire clan would be an incremental process, so the male hyenas decided to keep some distance between themselves and the calf by waiting near their female clanmates while they were still eating.

The king cheetah shared a moment with his 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 these leopard cubs, a rhinoceros calf, and lionesses will all be sharing territory with each other, none of which would ever have been possible were it not for you. You united hyena and jackal. You did as superb 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, lowering 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 you are full of. You have been, yourself, a uniter of a pharaoh’s chicken, a 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 non-melanistic leopard cub began gnawing at the king cheetah’s leg, and it was not many seconds before the black leopard cub pounced onto her sister, and chased her away from the cheetah.

“She is a fierce young protector,” commented the painted dog laughingly. “Exactly whom we need to help us protect this rhinoceros calf.”

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 caring for cubs helped make it feel more obsolete whether he was a hybrid or pure. Rearing the leopard cubs made him feel more like a big cat than he ever felt in his lifetime.

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

 

 

 

Sand and winter and moonlight

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 sharp canines, defining their skulls……

And all prides led by mane of ice-colored hair

are prophesized to thrive anywhere.

 

––––– Anthem for the White Lion