We’ve all heard the stories of animals in the wild going rogue. Their unpredictable nature can turn on you at any time.
It’s no wonder game reserves caution their guests not to leave their vehicles or approach any animal on foot.
But this latest video, courtesy of Kruger Magazine, had us gasping in fright.
Although the magazine hasn’t given much info on where the video had been filmed, the caption says: “Always keep the doors and windows closed when living in the bush.”
It starts off innocently enough with a baby crawling towards a darkened window and looking out.
Not even a few seconds later, a cheetah comes charging towards the baby, and a loud thump can be heard when it hits the glass.
With just a piece of glass protecting the baby from the wild animal, whoever is filming the video is jolted, and so is the baby, who cries from fright.
It makes you wonder, had the sliding door not been closed, that encounter would have ended very differently.
The comments came in thick and fast. One Facebook user also recounted a similar experience: “We had that same thing with a cheetah when my daughter was about 3 years old. Makes you aware that the glass is pretty thin.”
The post had already raked up 7.7K reactions and 5.1K comments.
Another called out the parents for filming the occurrence, even after the baby started crying, saying: “In the first place, why you have that curtain skinned open like that if the glass door closed, that parent knew that animal was out there. That poor baby, I feel sorry for him or her they where so scared. I don't find this at all funny and all who thought this was ok something clearly wrong with y'all. All this for likes and shares nothing was a coincidence sh*t.....”
Another tended to agree that the parent’s actions were reckless: “No seriously, the parent or whoever took this video must have known the Cheetah was out there, or something, ready to film this... this is just BAD and very upsetting!” wrote one user.
The cheetah is the fastest land animal, timed running at speeds of up to 114km/h, according to www.krugerpark.co.za.
And while the cheetah's kill rate is hard to determine, the consensus is that a cheetah kills between 30 and 150 animals a year.