On our way to see the Cheetah I was thinking, why the Lion was given the title the "King of the Jungle"?! Why not the Cheetah?! They are both from predatory animals and the big cats’ species; I even argue that the Cheetah deserves the title more than the Lion, enough pride for him that he is the fastest animal on the surface of earth, with speed up to 110 km per hour.(1)

The car stopped to cut my thoughts… I started to look for him without avail. Then it is the experience of our guide which guided us to the place, or let’s say his binoculars magnifier by which he explores the exposed earth before determining his destination.

The Guide pointed with his hand that there is a Cheetah lying…We could not see him with our naked eye; we only saw a herd of deers standing glued in their place. We shared the binoculars magnifier to see him; he was hiding behind a short hill, closer to a dirt pile…

The first thing to pull our attention was the weakness of his body structure; he is quite different from the broad shouldered Lion. May be the nature granted him a super-speed nature and looted him the strength of structure; I imagine that this was his choice in the bargaining of survival. By referring to some sources I learned that the Cheetah at the dawn of creation did not possess a weak structure in this way.

In addition, we did not hear a roar for him…We thought he is dumb! Later on we knew that he does not roar like a Lion…We knew then why the Cheetah cannot be the king of the jungle in any way…However he is its runner without any doubt.

The Cheetah is a fast creature and not a brave one, for courage is due to potential and confidence in capabilities. As for him his gifts are focused in speed, and he was designed specifically as a fast creature, to acquire the title of the "Forest Runner" worthily. However he does not have many of the lethality means. He is a professional hunter, and an amateur assassin. Every part of him serves him in being fast…A slender body, a small head, a long tail keeping his balance during running and maneuver, a large lung crowded with air, a short tusk versus a large nose that fills in large amounts of air, crooked claws enabling him to hit the ground and jump for distances, strong veins, and a strong heart that pumps the blood to the farthest!! (2)

The Cheetah has never claimed courage, for he knows his abilities, but he is proud of his speed. He did not deprive us from his lessons, especially as he is about to extinction. Ninety per cent of his cubs die before their first birthday. He was making a farewell speech, he wanted to leave a word for history, and contribute in the education of human beings:

The Point of Excellence: Know yourself and select your tactics based on your abilities. Do not get provoked by the outbidding of others. The Cheetah does not imitate the Lion, because he knows he is different from him. Thus he does not chase a buffalo like the Lion, but he feeds on the smaller non-violent animals like deers. He is not prepared to fight the battle of testing the strength; however he welcomes the battles of the speed test. His large nose and short tusk refer to that his speed tools surpass the tools of his oppression. So, he withdraws from the force battles for the battles of speed.

Natural Presence: Be where your goals are achieved, and make your opponent get used to your presence and be familiar with it, after it used to raise his suspicion and attention. Be a natural part of the place, take its color, speak his language, and move in the same pattern of his movement. The Cheetah lies in his place until the deers get used to his existence; they look at him every now and then, so if they forget him he remembers them and start to implement his plan.

The Decisive Minute: Start off with lightning speed towards your goal, and if you could not get it pull yourself out until you recover your energy and re-attack again.The Cheetah approaches its prey before it starts running, and the chase does not exceed one minute.So, if he was not able to get the hunt he retreats.(3) Since the rise in his body temperature during running may take his life. It is a decisive minute, either to succeed to catch his chase, or die from fatigue.The Cheetah understands the importance of managing this minute, and does not refrain to return if he heard the whistle of his watch.(4) The preparation for this minute may take hours of studying the earth and the nature of the herd, and exercising patience to wait.

Hunting the Stray: Strive to win the stray, those who stand alone. Winning them over does not require to get engaged in great battles in order to convince them. The Cheetah looks for the stray who does not stand with the herd, not due to a disease or a sickness in it, but because it is only a stray that can be caught easily.

Defending the Power Point: Defend your strength points and select, depending on them, which battles you should get engaged in or avoid, for restitution of the strength points is not easy. The Cheetahs’ capital is their speed. Accordingly, before they fight any battle they think whether their strength points will be affected or not. From here came their tendency to avoid the existence in places of some animals such as tigers, and lions that can kill them, as they also avoid fighting any harmful animal, and they may even leave a prey to their rival. In addition, they hunt at times where their competitors does not move, and then devour their prey quickly so as not to be rivaled by anyone. All of these procedures for fear of being injured in the battles leading to the loss of their ability to run.

I came out from the Cheetah lessons in a different spirit from that of the one I was saturated with after meeting the Lion. The Cheetah teaches us how to deal when our strength is concentrated in a basic point, then it become the focus of every thing, the strength point is the same weakness one, we attack by it, and at the same time we defend it.

The Cheetah tactics are suitable for the specialized groups that focus on a specific type of small targets, which they want to achieve without engaging in side conflicts. They are closer to those who adopt the line of achieving small partial successes…The Cheetah will then be a good teacher for them.

WaelAdel

May 30^th, 2012

Translated by Rana Mohammed