This month we also have some very sad news to report. At the end of September, one of CCB’s rehabilitated cheetah brothers was found dead and it is believed he may have been injured during a hunt. His brother remained in the area for several days and then moved further south. Here it appears he made a kill and unfortunately attracted the attention of two male lions where he met his end.
Although an unfortunate conclusion, the cheetah brothers did show that it is possible for orphaned cheetah to learn to hunt and support themselves in the wild. However, the big challenge is potential release sites that are free of high populations of lions, people and that have adequate prey to support a release. Lions are one of the biggest threats to cheetah in Protected Areas and have caused the cheetah populations to move on to unprotected lands with lower competition from stronger predators. However, here human conflict is the biggest threat. One of the reasons Selinda Reserve was chosen as a release site was the lower population of lions compared to other Protected Areas in Botswana and the distance from rural farming communities. Unfortunately, it was not low enough and in future it will be advisable to consider areas with little to no lion presence, as potential release sites. However, overall the initiative gave the 2 cheetah brothers the chance of freedom (the other option being a life of captivity) which they enjoyed for several months and gave CCB the opportunity to learn more about the intricacies of cheetah rehabilitation and release.

The challenges endured by early migrations of people to this hard and uncompromising landscape were relived when three friends got together to run 1000 km from Ghanzi to Mokolodi near Gaborone along the most remote tracks that now connect this ancient and majestic region of Botswana. The motivation, to take on this off the wall experience was to raise awareness and gather support for the plight of the fastest creature on our earth – the Cheetah.
Jukka Viljanen, Kirsi Montonen both from Finland and Greg Maud from South Africa, teamed up to take on this historic adventure. It will be the first time such a race has been run, there is no previous record of anyone having undertaken a run across 1000 km of the remote Kalahari in Botswana ever before.
The race started at the CCB Western Kalahari camp in Ghanzi and finished with a final run through Mokolodi Game Reserve to the cheetah enclosure. They were met by the CCB team and introduced to the two ambassador cheetahs, Duma and Letotse. The purring of these 2 beautiful cats was a wonderful end to an exciting adventure. The Kalahari 1000 challenge could not have come to a more successful or better end. However the cheetahs’ challenges and fight for survival has not ended and we encourage everyone to support their conservation. www.kalahari1000.com

In October, Rebecca was busy fundraising in the USA once again. The trip started off with a visit to Safari West in Northern California, here CCB gave a talk to Spring Creek Elementary School who are busy raising funds for cheetah conservation through their Coins for Cats Initiative. Then it was off the annual Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) Expo. As a WCN partner, this event is key to CCB’s fundraising success every year. WCN does a wonderful job of bringing effective conservationists from around the world together and giving them the opportunity to showcase their work to an interested donor community. The week incorporates workshops for the conservationists and an exciting schedule of events including a public Expo at Mission Bay conference centre in San Francisco, dinners, cocktail and garden parties, all designed to give potential supporters the opportunity to learn more about the work of conservation. The events were supported by conservationist and celebrity Edward Norton, who is now the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity. Overall, it was a successful Expo week thanks to the wonderful WCN staff, volunteers and all the supporters. Rebecca then attended an event at the Mangelsen Images of Nature Gallery, in La Jolla, Southern California, kindly organised by Jackie Navarro and her wonderful team from Zoofari Inc. The following day was off to San Diego Zoo for meetings and a great tour of their facilities. Lastly a visit to Cathryn Hilker and her great cheetah team at Cincinnati Zoo was a perfect place to finish off another successful visit to the USA to raise funds for cheetahs. Thankyou to everyone who made the visit such a great success!