Video Of Man Cuddling Cheetahs In South Africa Shared As Rajasthan Temple

A clipped video of a man cuddling three cheetahs as they fall off to sleep is doing the rounds on social media with a false claim that the incident took place in the Pipleshwar Mahadev Temple of Rajasthan's Sirohi area. BOOM found that the incident happened in a South Africa cheetah breeding center.   

The video is viral with the narrative which claims that the three cheetahs are used to the cuddles of a temple staff and sleep along with him. 

It has been captioned as, "This video is of Pipleshwar Mahadev Temple Mochal (Sirohi). Every day, this cheetah family sleeps with the temple servant." (Original text in Hindi: हर हर महादेव। यह विडियो पिपलेश्वर महादेव मंदिर मोछाल ( सिरोही ) का है हर रोज ये चीता परिवार मन्दिर के सेवक को अपना समझ कर उनके साथ सो जाते हैं।)

The video has also been tweeted by former member of the Lok Sabha and Indian cricketer Kirti Azad with the same narrative.The tweet can be seen here and has been archived here. 

The video is also doing the rounds on Facebook with a similar narrative.

The archived version of one such post can be seen here.

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Fact Check 

BOOM did a keyword search on Google with the words 'man sleeping with cheetah' and found the longer version of the footage which was shared on YouTube by Dolph C Volker. It was uploaded in January last year. Volker has more than 4 lakh subscribers on the platform.  

The description of the video reads, 'Do Cheetahs Prefer Cold Hard Concrete Or Warm Blankets Pillow & A Friend? | Three BIG CAT Night'. From the description of the video, we were able to ascertain that Volker is an animal advocate who spent nights with the cheetahs at a cheetah breeding center in South Africa, Cheetah Experience. In this particular video, Volker films and studies the behavioral changes of the animal when they get human warmth.  

Volker shares his experience in the YouTube description as, "I was granted special permission to spend my nights with the three because I had watched them grow up and built up a relationship with them during past volunteering." He further writes, "I think it is really cool these cheetahs trust and like me enough to share their most vulnerable time at night to snuggle, purr, and share their warmth and sleep with me." 

We further looked for Volker on Twitter and found the video which was posted on the platform on the same day.

Volker's Facebook page is called as  'The Cheetah Whisperer', and his about section describes him as an animal advocate with a Zoology degree and talks about his fascination of studying animal life and behaviour. It also mentions about his plans to establish a private cheetah breeding center in South Africa and hence he executed a number of 'cheetah experiences'.

Additionally, we found a News18 article from June 2020 on the video and how it has created a sensation on social media. The article also mentions about Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan's tweet confirming that the breath-taking clip was of animal rights advocate Dolph C. Volker from South Africa. 

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