Video from South Africa shared as man cuddling with cheetah in Pipleshwar Mahadev temple

Several social media users have shared a video of a person sleeping with cheetahs. As per the claim, the video is from Pipleshwar Mahadev, a Rajasthan-based Hindu temple in Mochhal.

राजस्थान में एक गांव है सिरोही जहां पीपलेश्वर महादेव का मंदिर है यहां पर रात को पुजारी के पास आकर चीता परिवार रहता है सरकारी वाइल्डलाइफ डिपार्टमेंट को जब यह पता लगा तो उन्होंने वहां सीसीटीवी कैमरे लगाए आप देखिए यह खूबसूरत दृश्य। pic.twitter.com/g7rOdN71Az

— दिनेश मिश्रा🇮🇳 (@Real_dbm2) July 31, 2021

Twitter @Shobhana111 shared the video in August 2020 drawing 1,000 views at the time of writing. (archived link)

ऐसा विडियो कभी नही देखा, पिपलेश्वर महादेव मंदिर मोछाल ( सिरोही ) का है हर रोज ये चीता परिवार मन्दिर के सेवक को अपना समझ कर उनके साथ सो जाते हैं💞🌹😍 @SamikshaNeetu1 @LambaAlka @Nadeemcontroli9 pic.twitter.com/nWgmZy15aX

— शोभना गुर्जर…..महाकाल पर निर्भर✈️ (@Shobhana111) August 6, 2020

Fact-check

Alt News performed a keyword search on YouTube and found that the video in question was uploaded by Dolph C. Volker.

The video is titled ‘Do Cheetahs Prefer Cold Hard Concrete Or Warm Blankets Pillow & A Friend? | Three BIG CAT Night’ and it has over 140 lakh views. As per the YouTube channel’s about section, Volker is a South Africa-based animal rights advocate and has studied zoology. He has close to 5 lakh YouTube subscribers. Alt News searched for his Facebook profile where we learned that he identifies as ‘The Cheetah Whisperer’.

As per the video description, the cheetahs in the video were bred and born at Cheetah Experience, a South Africa based cheetah breeding centre. According to the description, one of the cheetahs was supposed to be released into a protected wild area. Volker concluded that cheetahs are like house cats when it comes to their preference to sleep. They prefer a warm bed as opposed to a cold floor.

In 2015, NDTV wrote an article on Volker according to which he has been volunteering at Cheetah Experience at least since 2014.

Thus the social media claim that the video is from Pipleshwar Mahadev Temple, Rajasthan is false. It was uploaded by popular South African animal advocate Dolph C. Volker in 2019 on his YouTube channel.