Wow, lucky you. I hope you have a lovely time & look forward to seeing some pics when you get back.

Cheetahs are my favourite large cat ~ they can also be "domesticated" to a certain extent. Truly stunning predators. They have a lot in common behaviourally with our domestic cats too.

oh gorgeous pics! and i didnt even notice the 'hi' till you pointed it out too busy looking at his face i love them, they are soooo gorgeous and i love the big ears! they are one of my fave african animals, its a toss up between them, buffalo and lions

Thanks Magpye! Beautiful photos of a beautiful animal. Can you ever interact with these African wild dogs, like you can with wolves, do you know? Like the Wolf Trust at Reading, where you can Walk with Wolves? I don't know anything about these animals, other than they are very gorgeous.

There were some in a sanctuary I visited in south Africa. The sanctuary had a more or less open cage policy with all of the animals I cuddled a baby black rhino, petted an adult cheetah(they really do purr) interacted with roicats (caracals), ocelot and walked hand in trunk with elephants... But when it came to the hunting dogs it was strictly hands off! According to the sanctuary manager the hunting dogs were hand raised and were tame enough until they were about 18 months old then they became too aggresive and unpredictable... They are so rare I have never heard if any other sanctuary has tried to tame any.

Thanks for that. I see from googling that they are of course Canidae, related to wolves and domesticated dogs, and that they are extremely rare and on the endangered list. How very sad, they are so beautiful. Each one has totally unique markings apparently.