Cheetah Cub Attacked By Vicious Warthog - BBC Earth

Name: Cheetah Cub Attacked By Vicious Warthog - BBC Earth
Uploaded: 2026-05-13T06:17:42.761Z
Duration: 4 min 9 s
Channel: ZahWild Cheetahs
Description: After a cheetah cub is gored by a warthog, a vacationing veterinarian steps in to provide emergency care. The cub must be tranquilized and thoroughly examined to assess the severity of the wounds to its tail and back. The aftermath of the attack leaves the team waiting anxiously for a full recovery.

ZahWild Cheetahs

14 Video Views·May 13, 2026

After a cheetah cub is gored by a warthog, a vacationing veterinarian steps in to provide emergency care. The cub must be tranquilized and thoroughly examined to assess the severity of the wounds to its tail and back. The aftermath of the attack leaves the team waiting anxiously for a full recovery.

Warthogs, on the other hand, have potential. Adult cheetahs do sometimes kill young warthogs, but the full-grown pigs are formidable, with razor-sharp tusks and the muscle to back them up, and that made me very nervous. Every time the cubs went charging off after a warthog family, I was worried sick that one of them would get into trouble. On this occasion, Samuel pulled out of the chase, but we lost track of Tokki. By the time I was able to reach him, the damage was already done. It's OK, Tokki. He'd been cornered by the furious mother warthog and badly gored. I had no way of knowing the full extent of the injuries, only that Tokki was in a great deal of pain and absolutely terrified. It's OK, Tokki, Tokki. He'd been really unlucky in many ways, but luck was smiling on him in others. Visitors come to Lewa all the time on safari, and on this day, Bengt Rökken, a Swedish vet, was here on holiday. But Bengt is no ordinary vet. He works with exotic animals in zoos. He knew exactly what to do to tranquilise Tokki so that he could be moved safely and given a thorough checkover. Well done. It's OK, Tokki. That's it. He's definitely going out. Having Tokki slipping out of consciousness in my hands was really hard to swallow, but I knew that this was for his own good. Bengt had a huge amount of experience of dealing with injured animals, but an injury like this could have complications. This is superficial, but this will cause a lot of problem. And then there's puncture here somewhere on the dorsal side of the base of the tail, and then... The bite at the base of the tail has actually broken through the muscle at the base of Tokki's tail, so that's going to be quite a painful injury. A cheetah uses its tail the whole time as a counterbalance when it's running at high speed. If Tokki lost the use of his, it would make his life very difficult. Brilliant. So... Wow. Patched up. Waiting for Tokki to come round from the anaesthetic was agonising. Regardless of his wounds, I just wanted to see him awake again. Oh, there we go. OK, take it steady. Take it steady. Oopsie. He was back on his feet, just. We'd only know if he still had the full use of his tail after the wounds had healed, and that could take weeks.