Chapters 1 + 2

 

Chapter One

The Dog and the Cheetah

 

 

A lone survivor of lions’ wrath,

a solo dog needed new mates.

Allies of spots and of backs o’ black

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 three or so other male cheetahs, usually 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 looked for prey, and one day, she went on what ended up being her final hunt.

The orphaned cub was guarded from predators by an unexpected rescuer. 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 situation was indisputable, the surviving cub was carried off with a completely 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 a member of a pack of wild dogs that fell victim to a pride of lions, out of which only she survived. Soon afterward, she was 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 led her to befriend members of the painted dogs' other competing alpha predator species. As far as spotted hyenas receiving a rival large predator went, she was more welcomed than a lioness would have been on the basis that a painted dog would be overpowered by a single spotted hyena, whereas a lioness has enough strength to win against multiple spotted hyenas.

She lost her packmates, 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 rescuing a cheetah cub, her first thought was surely to attempt finding 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 spotted hyenas would have been outside the natural order of things? Granted, the painted dog living amongst spotted hyenas may also be considered unnatural, but she was at least a fellow stamina predator who assisted them in hunting.

The questions posed in the previous paragraph are valid, but just like how the painted dog in this story was an unusual painted dog, the cheetah cub in question was an unusual cheetah. An exceptional 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 known as 'painted dogs' for the irregular black, brown, and white patterns that make up their coats. Upon discovering the king cheetah cub, 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 about the mental states of a cheetah and a leopard who would have wasted their genetics in that way. She did remind herself that she had once presented herself to a male hyena in her adoptive clan, although given what happened to her packmates, was desperation an excuse for her to fall back on? Or did she still have no high ground from which to judge other creatures? She decided on the latter.

With her believing that the cub was a hybrid, she thought that no cheetah nor leopard mother would accept the offspring of another big cat. If the cub's mother was alive, the painted dog would have assumed that a female of either species who approached his nest was his mother. Even if a cheetah or leopard mother killing or rejecting a non-biological cub was not a concern, the painted dog wondered if “cheetah-leopard” cubs having far larger black markings on their bright-colored coats than cheetah and leopard cubs would ruin their camouflage that big cats 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? 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 jackal pups from their parents, but determined as they were to continue rearing their pups, she had no success in confiscating them. That did not dissuade her from helping to protect the pups, nor from sharing her prey with the family of black-backed jackals.

The jackal family proved themselves worthy of the painted dog introducing to her clan by alerting her and each other whenever they sighted a baboon, a big cat, a large hyena, or another wild dog approaching 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 spotted hyenas, other wild dogs, 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 clanmates to rest more, thereby reserving more stamina for hunting. The jackals benefitted in return from the clan’s protection and 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 keep him safe, and it would be needless to say that a “cheetah-leopard” surrounded by a clan of over seventy spotted hyenas would never harm any of their cubs nor jackal sentries if that “cheetah-leopard” valued their life.

After losing her pack, the painted dog first became an adopted clan member. Shortly after, she became a voluntary guardian and provider. Later in time, and to her surprise, 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

 

 

A felid was born of blotch and stripe,

found by the Packless Dog.

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

a hereditary flaw.

Born of yellow and too much black,

the cub was sure to starve.

With help from the Dog and from her clan,

his survival odds would enlarge.

 

––––– Song of the Cheetah-Leopard

 

 

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. In ancient Egyptian civilization, both cheetahs and Egyptian vultures were held in high regard. Cheetahs were used for hunting and kept to signify 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 otherwise have any business knowing.

Below the flying Egyptian vulture, walking alongside the cheetah and the painted dog were three other companions of theirs. 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, a greyish species (versus the more commonly recognized red 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 smaller bodies of the aardwolf and the fox. The group of eleven was not out leisurely, and they were not any group of eleven.

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

• The brown hyena was the group’s “jaws,” able to fend off any cheetah, leopard, lone 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 away non-hostile painted dogs.
• For the far greater threats posed by lions, spotted hyenas, and painted dog packs, the ring-necked spitting cobras served as the defense. Seeing hoods spread out of five spitting cobras standing upright in every which direction around the group would have sent a pride of lions running 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 one in the group to hear painted dog vocalizations from a far distance, or pick up on a surprise attacker advancing towards them (if the attacker evaded the Egyptian vulture’s aerial sight,) which allowed him to alert everyone on immediate notice if need be.
• The aardwolf did not have any specific capability 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 made them appear more inclusive to any painted dogs whom they were hoping to find.

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 a lot 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, the only creature in the landscape who did not believe that he was a cheetah-leopard. Given the king cheetah’s back stripes, the vulture believed that he was a hybrid of a cheetah and a striped hyena, despite striped hyenas not being native to Southern Africa. Striped hyenas, similar to cheetahs and Egyptian vultures, were kept by ancient Egyptians as symbols of power.

The Egyptian vulture’s species was nearing extinction in the landscape, and before sighting the king cheetah, he was prepared to fly to regions far off in search of a mate. The avian specialist in ancient Egyptian knowledge remained in the South African landscape out of fixation with who he believed was a cheetah-striped hyena hybrid, his association with spotted hyenas, and also his affiliation with his jackal family.

In ancient Egyptian religion, Anubis is the god of death, mummification, and the afterlife, depicted with the head of an African wolf –– a species classified previously as the African golden jackal, but is nonetheless more comparable in size and social behavior to Asian golden, black-backed, and side-striped jackals than they are to the wolves of European and North American fame. It is speculated that the carcass-scavenging habits of jackals and African wolves (different from Ethiopian 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 things that he learned from the vulture 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 brightly 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 being 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 prominent in ancient Egyptian civilization, would make for an immensely 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 carnivorous mammal 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 wild dog’s hunting stamina, a hyena’s jaw power, and a jackal’s family structure?

Among the king cheetah’s many observations was the hunting advantage that spotted hyenas have over lion prides, which makes spotted hyenas more successful predators. Since spotted hyenas are much smaller than lions, they have the advantage of one member from a hunting group being able to non-alarmingly approach a herd of ungulates –– namely antelope and zebras –– in order to assess the oldest or weakest individual for the hunting group to pursue and bring 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 Egyptian vulture’s method of using stones for cracking open ostrich eggs in order to feed out of them, a technique that makes his species one of the only African birds of prey 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 began to form a coalition unlike the standard cheetah coalition.

# # #

As stated previously, the king cheetah had the aardwolf, the bat-eared fox, the brown hyena, the Egyptian vulture, and the ring-necked spitting 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 ever 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 assisted his clan in hunting, but he and his mother ate after the high-ranking female hyenas. With the king cheetah hunting his own prey, he and his mother both enjoyed fresher meat.

• The aardwolf and the bat-eared fox were settled in abandoned burrows near the territory of the king 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 permitting a ‘termite-licker’ to push him around, which allowed him to get close enough for a guaranteed kill. The aardwolf and the fox would feed on the insects they found on any of his scraps.
• The king cheetah had one day taken a chance on a brown hyena and offered him a proposition. Being weaker than spotted hyenas, the brown hyena was more non-suspectable to ungulates, which made him able 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 as well.
• The ring-necked spitting cobras fascinated the king cheetah with their ability to ward off threats vastly larger than themselves without a single bite from their fangs. He was also impressed by their technique of playing dead in order to strike 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 bizarre 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 each hunt involving a cobra’s cooperation, they were provided a mouse or toad hunted by the aardwolf or the bat-eared fox on the cheetah’s instructions.

The king cheetah never had 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 the genetic purity to sufficiently procreate; and it was unlikely that a supposed half-cheetah with “camouflage-hindering” large black markings would have contributed enough during hunts to warrant being accepted into a coalition of male cheetahs. The king cheetah, as far as he was aware, had no legitimate reason to abandon the hunting aid and security of his clan. Trying to help his mother gave him some feeling of significance aside from hunting.

Even though the group never found packmates for the cheetah’s mother, their time searching was never time wasted. Finding food was just as good as finding painted dogs, and the king 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, if there was a carcass or a fresh kill nearby, the group had multiple means of locating it: the bat-eared fox’s superb hearing, the brown hyena’s sense of smell, and the Egyptian vulture serving as eyes in the sky. If they found a decaying carcass, the brown hyena and the Egyptian vulture could scavenge while the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox ate at the insects. If there was a fresh kill made by a cheetah or a leopard, the brown hyena could steal the prey for himself, the Egyptian vulture, the king cheetah, and the painted dog to consume. The idea of an animal stealing food may seem dishonorable to some readers, but for a wild creature driven by hunger, there is no such thing as a fairly earned meal.

# # #

During the afternoon mentioned at the start of this chapter, the king cheetah and the painted dog were entertained by listening to the conversation between their fox and hyena companions that began with the bat-eared fox commenting to the brown hyena on how much stronger he imagined an elephant’s sense of smell was than a hyena’s, on account of the prehensile length of an elephant’s nasal appendage. Since the topic of species who had exceptionally lengthy body parts was brought up, the aardwolf expressed her curiosity about how an animal as lengthy-necked as a giraffe could be saved if they were to choke, with the brown hyena bringing the conversation full circle by suggesting that an elephant might be able to save the suffocating giraffe by using their trunk to push the lodged food down the giraffe’s throat. As unlikely as that theory was to be tested, the cheetah and his mother were humored by the ever-increasingly bizarre nature of the conversation.

The ring-necked cobras were a lot more silent during the group’s outings, content with simply feeling the afternoon sun’s rays on their scales as they were coiled around their mammalian groupmates –– although listening to what the aardwolf and the brown hyena had to say about choking giraffes and elephant trunks was providing them extra amusement. They are identified as ‘ring-necked cobras’ for having one or two light-colored crossbands on the undersides of their necks, with the backs of their dark-colored bodies having yellowish bands running down all the way. The cobras enjoyed the outings from their burrows, without any concern of being preyed upon by honey badgers, mongooses, secretary birds nor snake-eagles.

The aardwolf and the bat-eared fox, despite being the smallest mammals in the group, were the least dramatic about premature death. They were not careless, but in an inescapable situation involving the threat of a baboon, a big cat, a crocodile, a large hyena, or a wild dog, there would not be much that one could do to save themselves from death 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 devoured by a honey badger. The aardwolf wanted her body to leave the earth as “energy 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 antelope being pinned to the ground and struggling to release themself, 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 was prepared to end their day’s search for prey or wild dogs if the kill was one that they could lay claim to, calling up to the Egyptian vulture to fly the direction that the fox pointed towards.

It was unknown if a cheetah, a leopard, or a lion was attempting to kill the antelope. The group began to make their way towards the site of the predation, with the Egyptian vulture flying ahead to see whether the big cat was a lion or one from whom they could steal the prey.

The group soon heard a long, loud roar as they were heading towards the unknown big cat, which ruled out the likelihood of a cheetah. A leopard would still have been small enough for the brown hyena to have chased off. With brown hyenas being shaggy-haired as opposed to spotted hyenas, the brown hyena was ready to puff all the way up the mane that ran down his back to make himself appear larger, whether to chase off a leopard or as a defensive reaction to a charging lion.

When the group entered close proximity to the location of the scuffle, the Egyptian vulture flew down to notify them that the big cat involved was, indeed, a leopard. They proceeded forward, but not without being told that the situation was vastly different from what they were anticipating.

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

The king cheetah was mindful as to not intimidate the defenseless cubs, given the larger sizes of himself, the brown hyena, and the painted dog compared to the smaller 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 them.

The aardwolf was told not to go right up towards them, but to lay down on her side when she got close to them. Making it halfway between her groupmates and the cubs, her instinct told her to pause to double-check the cubs’ mother for breathing so that she would not have been attacked by a violently protective leopard mother. Once she got close enough to the cubs, and laid down onto her side, they waited fifteen to twenty seconds before one of them curiously approached her. The other cub quickly followed suit, and they 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 closer to them, after which the cheetah and the painted dog began slowly crawling toward them. The brown hyena and the ring-necked 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 noted that it was not a charitable act. There was a specific factor that drew the king cheetah’s interest towards the pair of leopard cubs. One of them was melanistic, or in other words, a black leopard.

Black leopards are extremely rare in Africa, whereas their numbers 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. They do not have that hunting advantage in much of Africa’s landscape, but perhaps surprisingly, they have been reported in open savanna where forested areas were fairly distant away.

Upon seeing the leopard cubs, the king cheetah was willing to bet his life on his conviction that he was not only a cheetah-leopard hybrid, but the offspring of a black leopard. He thought that was the most plausible theory for his appearance, 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 “cheetah-leopard” believed that he was a half-brother of the leopard cubs. A male cheetah would normally not concern himself with rescuing any orphaned creature if he found one; but since he supposedly could not procreate, on account of being an alleged hybrid, the king cheetah was not going to turn down the opportunity to raise his “half-siblings.”

He and the painted dog waited for the cubs to tire before grasping them with their mouths, carrying them off to be raised under the protection of their clan. In the meantime, they could only hope that their matriarch would agree to her clan providing that protection.

 

 

 

Stamina, strength and strategy define a freckled clan.

Picking the easiest from a herd is their prime predator’s plan.

Chasing tirelessly the quarry until the quarry tires,

flesh of the prey gorily torn is the freckled clan’s score.

 

Those brown-haired are found southward, and those with stripes thrive up northward.

The shaggy-spined scavengers scamper about for the most scrumptious of scraps.

The aardwolves, smallest and termite-licking, still also serve the lands –––

for soil, when spoiled by termites too many, will cease to grow our plants.

 

––––– Hymn for the Hyenas, Northern and Southern