Cheetah?
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by horkusone
Does anyone else think this could possibly be a cheetah in this tree? I have looked at so many times that I no longer have any reasonable perspective. Definitely something there but what?
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by areinders moderator
You are right there is something, it is a bird, can't tell what species. A cheetah would be way to big to sit in those small branches.
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by bristletail
I'm not really seeing it. If there is a cat up there I think it would more likely be a leopard, they like to drag their kills up there. Though it isn't unheard of for a cheetah to climb a tree.
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by horkusone
You are right about the weight versus the thin branches. It just seemed to be longer and broader than just a bird but you are probably right.
I must have been misinformed at some point because I thought I read about cheetahs also dragging kills into trees. What I heard was that after a good sprint, they are exhausted and have little means of protecting their kill from other predators while they recuperate. Maybe I just heard wrong and it is, in fact, mostly leopards. Either way, it is still driving me bonkers!
Thanks for the input!
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by areinders moderator
Just to add one more piece of information to maybe help with the dimensions/sizes of things. There is an image originally posted in the bird section of discussions that shows red-billed hornbills in a tree:
I think the dimensions are pretty similar to the image above.
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by davidbygott moderator
Looks like small bird, yes. Leopards are the treeclimbers - cheetah have blunt non-retractile claws like dogs and don't climb at all well, definitely never with a kill - they try not to draw attention to their kills.
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