Sadly, these three cubs will never be able to live in the wild and hunt like their mother because they grew up with humans. -- PHOTO: AFP
WATERBERG (Namibia) - THREE cheetah cubs roll around in the grass totally involved in their game, the two males wanting to play with the wooden log their little sister has snatched away from them.
'They had a bad start in life as their heavily pregnant mother was shot,' said Leigh Whelpton, a volunteer at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia.
LAUDABLE EFFORTS
Looking for ways to help cheetahs survive, Laurie Marker, an American scientist living in Namibia, in 1990 started the CCF on Elandsvreugde farm at the foot of the majestic Waterberg Mountain some 300 kilometres northeast of the capital Windhoek.
Intensive international fundraising has helped create a laboratory, a public field research and education centre plus a veterinary clinic on the farm, which is open to the public.
'The farmer who killed it noticed movement in the stomach of the cheetah, cut it open and found three perfectly shaped cubs in the womb, alive,' she said.
The cubs - now eight months old - were brought to the CCF centre dedicated to the survival of cheetahs in Namibia, which has the world's largest population of the cats and one of the most successful programmes at boosting their numbers.
Sadly, the three cubs will never be able to live in the wild and hunt like their mother because they grew up with humans.
'They will be trained as cheetah ambassadors,' Ms Whelpton told AFP. 'Visitors will be able to come close to these beautiful felines to learn more about conservation.' Cheetahs are the fastest land animal on the planet, able to run at 120 kilometres per hour for short moments and accelerating from zero to 110 kilometres per hour in just three seconds.
But the spotted cats are increasingly endangered, with their population in Africa dropping from about 100,000 two decades ago to less than 10,000 now, said Laurie Marker, an American scientist living in Namibia.
'Namibia has the largest cheetah population in the world - some 3,000 - and 90 per cent of them live on farms, and many farmers see them as a threat to their livestock and shoot them,' said Ms Marker. About 120 cheetahs are killed each year by farmers who see them as 'problem animals'. -- AFP
