Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Cheetah - Education | Date: Oct 03 2007 | By: admin

On days we are not collaring cheetahs and having puppies there is still much to do here at CCF. Our centre is open 7 days a week for visitors to drop in. Education is a big part of our work and this gives us the opportunity to meet with people from all over the world. Our education staff takes them through our cheetah museum were they learn all about the cheetah’s history, biology, ecology, and our conservation efforts.

They are also taken to see the cheetah feeding of our 8 centre cats, Chewbaaka, the Hogwarts’ Trio, and the four Girls. The non-releasable cheetahs we have here were orphaned at a young age and therefore didn’t learn proper hunting and survival skills from their mother. The concern is that without proper hunting, and especially survival skills, combined with plentiful livestock in Namibia, releasing them may cause conflict between the cheetah and farmers. Throughout the year we respond to calls from farmers that have trapped cheetahs on their land. This was the situation with the Hogwarts’ Trio when at 2 months of age a farmer heard them calling their mother over a week’s time. Sadly the mother was never found and they came to reside CCF. Harry was named after the famous Harry Potter series due to a lightning bolt shaped cut over her eye and is in her enclosure with her sister Hermione and brother Ron. They continue to be favourites here at the centre and wow visitors and school groups with their enthusiastic running.

Visitors are also fascinated with CCF’s livestock guarding dogs as the dogs are often seen through out the farm with their goat herd. We use CCF as a model farm to show others that we can live with predators and protect our livestock. And we have news for you: as of yesterday we have welcomed our second litter of the month. Oushi gave birth throughout the night to 8 puppies. That gives us a total of 16 Anatolian puppies to be place with farmers when they reach 8 weeks of age. Until then they will be raised with our goats in order to bond with the herd.