Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - Education | Date: Oct 15 2007 | By: admin

It has been a busy but exciting week for our education programs. We started off the week with a group from Okamatapatii Combined School coming to participate in our centre based education program. This group of secondary learners stayed at our tented Camp Lightfoot for 2 days to learn about the cheetah and its role in the ecosystem. We started off the day with a cheetah run to show the learners these beautiful and unique cats in action. This is always a highlight for the learners as well as visitors, and it keeps our resident cheetahs in good shape. They also had the opportunity to observe a medical workup of a wild cheetah. Other activities they take part in during their stay include the cheetah feeding, a scavenger hunt through our cheetah museum and a game drive through the big field. Through this they learn not only about the cheetah but how important predator/prey interactions are for the ecosystem as a whole.

The learners also had the opportunity to meet a new addition to CCF, Little C, a four month old male cheetah. Little C was brought to us by a farmer who found him and his dead sibling. Despite attempts the mother wasn’t found and so he came to live with us. He will be an important part of our education program helping us to teach others why these animals should be wild and free. It is important for others to understand that the animals living with us have been orphaned and wouldn’t survive in the wild without their mother.

We have been fortunate to be joined by Courtney Van Dijk, a master’s student in Environmental Education at Lakehead University in Thunderbay Ontario. Courtney brings with her much experience from leading a science camp for five years, to teaching middle school and university students. She has provided new activities not only for the learners visiting CCF but for the teachers of Otjiwarango, our nearest town. She initiated a workshop for local teachers to learn more about implementing Environmental Education in schools and led them through activities that could be shared with their students. We had a good response as many teachers were already interested in the topic and enjoyed learning new ways to include it in their classrooms. She has also helped train our staff to carry on these workshops after she leaves.