One week later, the males were released in the same fashion as the previous release from their enclosure. They remained together and based upon their collar data, it is clear that they began making successful kills. However, about two weeks after their second release, the monitoring team became concerned with the data arriving from the collars. It seemed that one or two of the males had been caught in a trap cage. Luckily, CCF received permission from a neighbor and travelled to the cheetahs’ location. Two of the males were indeed caught in a trap, so CCF captured the third and transferred all three once again back to their enclosure at CCF. All three males are currently residing in their enclosure at CCF. A plan is being worked on for their release again soon.
4 females (Georgia, Susan, Daenarys, Tatjana)
The four sisters (all related to Elwood in the group of three males) are still living in their enclosure at CCF. CCF’s release team is searching for a suitable release site for these four sisters and once an appropriate site has been found, CCF will begin the release process. Finding suitable release sites within Namibia is one of the most difficult aspects of cheetah releases as there are so many factors that must be considered during site selection. The area must have suitable prey populations, water and cover access, and surrounding communities must be on board with the release efforts. Working closely with the people who live and work within the areas cheetahs are living/released is critical for the success of any release efforts.
Watch the Cheetah release on video by following this link https://youtu.be/SYFtbydCurI
