Scenes of Wild Cheetah family cuddling with an Indian farmer at night?

At times we come across unbelievable incidents, where wild animals have formed strong connections with humans. Social media platforms make these stories viral instantly. However, while some of those stories are genuine and authentic, some get shared with misleading narratives. This is one such investigation into miscaptioned posts about a strong bond between a Cheetah family and a farmer.

Social Media Posts

A Facebook user uploaded the video which depicts a cheetah family cuddling with a human at a hut with a below-mentioned details.

“Wow! Anyone whose had cats can relate to this...

In Rajasthan, India, at Siriholini Village, every night a wild cheetah and his family would come to a farmer's hut and snuggle up with the farmer.

This was going on for a while and no one believed the farmer.

One day, he mentioned it to an officer at the local Wildlife Preservation Office.

Just for fun, they installed a CCTV camera in his hut ... and ... “

Facebook

We noticed many similar posts, which related that this unreal bond between a farmer and cheetah family happened in a village in Rajasthan, India.

Due to the viral nature of these posts, we decided to do a fact check over this.

Fact Check

First, we fragmented the video using Invid-We verify tool and were able to find the original video related to the social media posts.

The video was published by a volunteer of one of the South African Cheetah breeding Centers, named “Cheetah Experience” in 2019. The name of the volunteer is Dolph C.Volker and he captioned the video as “Do Cheetahs Prefer Cold Hard Concrete or Warm Blankets Pillow & a Friend? | Three BIG CAT Night”.

This is how Volker describes his experiment with the Cheetas.

“These captive cheetahs were bred and born at cheetah breeding centers in South Africa; one at Cheetah Experience. All are quite tame as they are groomed for the breeding program so when they have cubs, they can be monitored closely. An accepting and approachable mother allows that. There is a plan to release one of these cheetahs into a protected wild in the near future. I was granted special permission to spend my nights with the three because I had watched them grow up and build up a relationship with them during past volunteering. It is natural for a family or friends of animals living together to share warmth. It is a survival behavior that is innate. In our human survival schools, we are taught to huddle together if lost in the wilderness; conserving heat by sharing warmth. They recommend you do it without clothing because fabric acts like an insulator and you don't get the maximum efficiency of heat transfer to your body. I think it is really cool these cheetahs trust and like me enough to share their most vulnerable time at night to snuggle, purr, and share their warmth and sleep with me. It is an extraordinarily rewarding feeling. I don't get much sleep due to the constant getting up, readjusting, and laying back down. Cheetahs are very skittish and wake up at the slightest sound or vibrations, so I don't get much sleep, but I don't do this to get rest but to experience something quite unique and special. I don't sleep with these cats, they sleep with me. They come to me which makes it more special. They enjoy the company almost as much as I do.”

Volker originally from the USA, came to the “Cheetah Experience”, the cheetah breeding Centre in Bloemfontein, South Africa and managed to and built strong rapport with the Cheetahs. The below video, recorded in Cheetah Breeding Centre, South Africa gives more evidence regarding the relationship between cheetahs and Volker.

https://youtu.be/wqhU6Sx7PJc

We looked at the website of “Cheetah Experience” and noticed that they have volunteering programs that give an opportunity to global volunteers like Volker to help with the cheetah conservation tasks in South Africa.

Meanwhile, the management of cheetah experience, had also confirmed to Reuters that the viral video was originally recorded in their cheetah breeding Centre. The related article can be read from here or archived link here.

We also looked at the Indian farmer’s story from Rajasthan and there was no credible evidence to support that narration and story.

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Conclusion:

According to our investigation, we were able to find out that the social media posts which had implied that the viral video was scenes of an Indian farmer cuddling with a cheetah family is misleading. This video was actually captured at “Cheetah Experience”, a cheetah breeding Centre in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Video shows how an American volunteer at the breeding center, had recorded a group of Cheetahs which he had known for a few years at the center, cuddled together to keep their bodies warm in a rainy environment.

Scenes of Wild Cheetah family cuddling with an Indian farmer at night?

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