Did the Wildebeest really fart on the face of the Cheetah to escape it’s life?
Claim
Rating
Explanation
The above post shared by the user namely “Figen” has received a whooping amount of 6.8M views, 53.6K likes and around 8000 reposts. In this 12-second viral clip, we see a cheetah chasing a wildebeest, who runs fast for its life and there we witness a smoke kind of fart released by the wildebeest in the face of the cheetah.
https://twitter.com/Indicator_tv/status/1696018230710526114?s=20
https://twitter.com/TheeDarkCircle/status/1695034221080072270?s=20
This video went viral with the claim that this is a good technique to outrun cheetah when your life is in danger. This particular part of the video is viral in TikTok which can be visibly seen below from the screenshot. Some of the X posts with such claims can be seen here and here.
Come, let’s check the authenticity of this weird claim.
What’s the truth?
While we started our research using relevant keywords we were directed to the YouTube page of “BBC” where we can see the same video but minus those smoke kinds of farts. The video was uploaded on 24 November 2015 with the title “Cheetah chases Wildebeest | The Hunt – BBC One.”
In their description box, they said, “The open arenas of grassland and desert make up half of all land on our planet. In these exposed habitats, predators like cheetahs, bald eagles and lions can usually see their prey. But it works both ways: their prey can see them too. With nothing but open vistas, the element of surprise is hard-won, and predators must make their own opportunities. This episode explores the strategies of predator and prey in the open arena.”
Also, this video falls under the Nature documentary series narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
In this 2-minute 20-second video around the timeline of 1:30, we were able to witness the same chase between the cheetah and the wildebeest but without the fart. This perfectly proves that the video is shared after editing and is circulated with false claims.
Moreover, while watching the viral post we also noted that some people in the comment section also pointed out the fact that the video is an edited and fake version.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude that the viral video with the claim of the Wildebeest using the technique of using fart as a weapon to escape from Cheetah is a fake and edited clip. The original video is from BBC in 2015 under the title “The Hunt | Episode 5.”
