Safari Tour Has Heart-Stopping Scare as Cheetah Jumps Into the Back Seat

“We started to notice the cheetahs became curious of the vehicle,” said Hayes. “But it was too late to drive quickly away or anything like that because you don’t want to startle the animals because that’s when things usually go wrong.”

Distracted by another brother cheetah who had jumped onto the hood of the SUV, Hayes remarked that the group had not noticed the other animal until it hopped into the back of the vehicle.

Instructed by guides to keep calm, breathe steady, and not to engage in eye contact to allow the animal to trust the humans, Hayes and other tourists managed to escape unharmed.

Hayes went on to say, “I was scared to death, but I’ve never felt more alive.”

The video was shared on social media by Hayes’s mother, Elisa Jaffe, who got quite a fright when she first watched it. “Give your mom a heart attack kid! No wonder he waited to tell me,” Jaffe joked with a news anchor at Komo News.

This is not the first occurrence of wild animals attacking vehicles during an organized tourist safari. In 2018 a pack of lions charged a car at West Midlands Safari Park in England and in 2016 a tourist was attacked and another killed by a tiger in a park in China.