CHEETAH RE-WILDING PROJECT - FUNDED & MONITORING FOR REGULAR UPDATES

 

Nkanyiso’s successful rewilding diary! July 2023

We're happy to share an update on Nkanyiso (formerly Edith!) from this week. She has now moved into a great cheetah area, being in the eastern plains where much of the plains game spends time. She hasn’t secured her own food since scavenging on the Red Hartebeest carcass, so the team fed her a portion on Wednesday. She is now responding well to the feeding whistle we use to let her know when we have food for her. This together with the fact that we only feed her from a certain truck, means she doesn’t associate our safari vehicles with food. Because of this, sightings of her are great in that she shows behaviour that is natural; she is very comfortable with the safari vehicles and her behaviour is not much impacted by their presence.

 

Updated video on the rewilding of Edith (who now goes by her African name of Nkanyiso)

 

July 11, 2023:

Hi everyone, I hope you are all very well! I'm so happy to share this update on Nkanyiso today, lots of exciting news! 

Nkanyiso met the two male cheetahs who are currently acclimating in our cheetah enclosure. The meeting was friendly, she was showing signs of being in heat and she spent some time in the vicinity. 

Our team has continued to provide food for her, but we're delighted to report that on Tuesday afternoon she managed to successfully hunt, herself. We anticipate she'll continue to explore her new home at Nyosi when she's done feeding in the next day or two. 

The team is very happy with her progress to date!

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June 29th, 2023

We have funded the relocation of three cheetahs with our partners, the Aspinall Foundation. We’re not going to share their location for the cheetah’s safety, but we do have their exact locations from Aspinall’s Regional Director, Dereck Milburn. Dereck has sent us photos and videos and tracking information. We’ve chosen not to publish the tracking details for their safety. We’ll hopefully be able to share more with you as we feel more confident they’re safe from poachers and settling in well.

Edith was rewilded on her own (video above) as is the natural process. Ben is currently being bonded with another male, named Nairo who came to South Africa from the United Kingdom with his brother, Saba. Saba was unfortunately killed when he tried to kill an eland calf and the calf horned him. Nairo has been unsettled since his brother died. So it was decided he’d be better suited to bond with another younger male that he can teach how to hunt.

The bonding process is almost complete and their release into the reserve is scheduled for early May. Since Ben has never hunted before, they will wear collars for tracking and the team can make sure that he is adapting. If he doesn’t engage naturally with the wildlife, cheetah monitors will supplement them until such time that they do start hunting for themselves.

Nyosi the third cheetah is being placed in a holding pen (a boma) and released this week. Monitors will use the collars we provided to find the cheetah on a daily basis and provide supplementary food for her until she can hunt for herself.

  • More footage of all of their releases will be coming soon!