As one of Africa's deadliest hunters, you might think tourists would be a tad intimidated by coming face-to-face with a cheetah.

But one group of big game watchers in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve had no option but to get up close and personal with the world's fastest land animal.

Expecting to only admire the animal from afar, the group was taken aback when the spotted cat pounced on its 4x4 and sat only inches away.

Rather than trying to intimidate or analyse the group of stunned tourists, the female cheetah struck up a number of poses as they began to take pictures.

Amateur photographer Dr Serhat Demiroglu,44, could not believe his luck when the cat pounced on the vehicle.

The doctor, from Bodrum, Turkey, was able to take a number of close-ups of the cat through the vehicle's sun roof, before it left and jumped on a second truck full of tourists

Dr Demiroglu described the incident as 'a bit of a dream' and said the cat was so close he could feel its breath.


He said: 'l was taking photos of a cheetah and her cub when she started getting very close to our vehicle. Within a second she had jumped on to the roof which was totally open.

He added: 'l couldn't do anything for the first minutes as it felt like a bit of a dream.

'Than l remembered my camera and started taking some shots while thinking "has anybody seen a cheetah from this angle before?"'


After about 20 minutes the cheetah hopped from Serhat's vehicle and on to another 4x4 close by.

'My driver said he had never seen anything like it in 10 years.' said Dr Demiroglu.

'The cheetah didn't show any sign of aggression at all, was very friendly actually. If she wanted, she could easily have harmed me.'


The cat's brazen behaviour and comfortable nature around the tourists is not all that surprising given that the animals were once kept by humans as pets.

Rulers in Ancient Egypt partly domesticated the animals and even tamed them for hunting.

Hooded cheetahs would be transported to hunting grounds, where dogs would first flush out the prey. As cheetahs hunt by sight, rather than scent, they would then be released to chase down the prey.

Their domestication was also adopted by the Persians and other leaders such as Genghis Khan, Akbhar the Great and Charlemagne.
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