Working with a Cheetah...and why?

As a student of Natural Science, I started to volenteer at Cheetah Outreach during my June holiday.

Me stroking a 7 month old cheetah cub

Cheetah Outreach is a sanctuary for...you guessed right: cheetah's! Its located in Paardevlei in the Western Cape of South Africa. This week was only my first week, but I have already learned so much about caring for Serval's, Caracel's and Meerkat's. Even on my second day I've received the honour of stroking a 7 month old cheetah cub. And today my friend came as a visitor to Cheetah Outreach and stroke an adult cheetah.

My best friend in the white jacket stroking the Cheetah

Many people would say it is sad and cruel to keep a wild animal in an enclosure, but if you do your research and visit Cheetah Outreach you will find that we are actually saving the Cheetah specie from extinction.

With the increase in human population, the natural roaming land for the wild animals becomes smaller and smaller. And on-top of that, the cheetah is not build to fight for food, but for running down its food. If a stronger predator (e.g. lion & leopard) is in the area of a potensial prey, the cheetah will not fight the stronger predator for the prey.

Without the enclosures and the caring from our side (humans), our next generation will only know a cheetah from pictures in a book.

Cheetah Outreach are even going to the length of breeding Anatolian Shepard dogs that they place out on farms. These dogs protect the farmer's lifestock and in return the farmer sign a contract not to hurt any "loose"/"free-roaming" cheetah's (not in an enclosure or park). These dogs scare off predators, and while the farmer don't loose his lifestock, the cheetah's and other animals don't get hurt.

I am really impressed with what Cheetah Outreach is doing and am proud to be a part of their team.

Cheetah, out