Feed Orphan Cheetahs in Namibia

In most cases, rescued orphan cheetahs that CCF cares for spend the remainder of their life in captivity because they have not had enough learning experience with their mother in the wild to survive on their own. However, in some cases, certain cheetahs display enough natural wild behavior, during their assessment/ rehabilitation period, to make them candidates for release. Jacomina was one of these special cheetahs. In December 2013, three female cheetahs, Jacomina, Emma and Minja, were radio-collared and released back into the wild on CCF land. The three were closely monitored and did well from the start.

Soon CCF staff decided to relocate Jacomina to Erindi Private Game Reserve. Meanwhile, Jacomina mated with a wild male and gave birth to two cubs; they were named Savanna and Shandy.   CCF staff was there to check on the mother and cubs, with a film crew in tow. Erindi, although private, is said to be a tract of land 10 times the size of Manhattan. As such, it’s home to an array of wildlife, including prey species for Jacomina as well as predator threats to her cubs.  

Around the middle of 2015, the female cubs separated from their mother to embark on their own journey as adult wild cheetahs. In anticipation of this separation, CCF staff fitted the cubs with radio collars so that we could continue to monitor their progress.  Savanna and Shandy thrived.

In May 2016, from the data collected with her GPS collar, we could see that Shandy had been returning repeately to the same location for 2.5 weeks. With female cheetahs, the time we see this movement behaviour is when they give birth to cubs and CCF researchers had determined that Shandy most likely gave birth sometime during 3 May 2016.

And most recently in July of 2017, CCF staff got visual confirmation that Savanna had given birth to four cubs. The cubs are doing well, they are gaining weight and appear very healthy. It’s an incredible success to have four more cheetahs in the wild. These cubs have an uncertain future ahead but thanks to your support we are able to monitor them and help Savanna if she needs it.

Releasing captive raised orphan cheetahs back into the wild comes with many risks.  The benefits outweigh the risks when CCF can provide a cheetah with a life in the Wild - the life it is meant to have.  We go to great lengths and costs to ensure they are successful.  By releasing orphans back into the wild after rehabilitation, CCF mitigates the negative impact of human-wildlife conflict on the cheetah population and is one step closer to reaching our goal.

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