Okonjima's Cheetah's on British Television
British television company ITV is currently airing a 12-part series on the cheetah release programme of the AfriCat Foundation in Namibia. The programme, Cheetah Kingdom, was filmed between May and September this year on Farm Okonjima, the home of the AfriCat Foundation, west of the Waterberg Plateau and 225 km north of Windhoek.
The first 30-minute episode on 10 September had 2.5 million viewers. The series, aired every Friday at 20h00, ends on 26 November. It follows the new life in the wild of the ten captive cheetahs which were released into the 22 000 ha private reserve between 18 May and 13 August.
Roughly a quarter of the world's cheetah population is found in Namibia.
The AfriCat Foundation was registered as a non-profit organisation in 1993 and since then has rescued over 1000 cheetahs and leopards which were trapped as a result of the conflict between humans and wildlife on farms. Over 85% of the big cats have been returned to the wild. AfriCat runs the largest cheetah and leopard rescue-and-release programme in the world. Now that the last stage of the Okonjima Private Nature Reserve (22 000 ha) has been completed, AfriCat is able to expand and accelerate its rehabilitation programme with the ultimate aim of returning more large carnivores to the wild. The rehabilitation programme gives them the opportunity to hone their hunting skills and become self-sustaining in a protected area.
All this is the result of the vision of Wayne Hanssen who took over Okonjima, his parent's farm, in 1991. As a boy he had fostered a dream of an animal sanctuary where cattle farming would make way for a private Nature Reserve and no animal would be harmed, where predators would be allowed to hunt without being punished. In order to make this happen, the Hanssens created various guest accommodation facilities, and the work of the AfriCat Foundation is the key to the Okonjima experience.
Do cheetahs dash off into freedom as soon as they have the chance?
If they are wild cheetahs, released after only a short time in captivity, they will ''charge out', usually never to be seen again. Captive cheetahs, however, become habituated if they have been in captivity for a while. They seem to find a strange comfort in their captive environment, and their release into the wild is quite daunting for them. Usually they have to be coaxed and bribed with an easy meal before they are prepared to leave the familiarity of their fenced-in area. All of them wear radio-collars so that their welfare and hunting successes can be monitored daily.
In September AfriCat also released four wild dogs which had been in their care since May 2005. They were part of a litter of seven puppies buried alive after the rest of the pack had been poisoned by communal farmers. Raising these puppies was the hardest project ever tackled by AfriCat. Their eyes were still closed and they had no immunity. But they became famous from the start, when their first weeks were filmed for a British television programme. When the four survivors were old enough they were moved to a new area, far from human activity. On the day of their release they were nevertheless a little reluctant at first to embrace their freedom, but by the afternoon they had already chased a family of warthogs and the next morning they were seen taking down their first kill - a kudu! After five years in captivity instinct still kicked in.
Christina Rockstroh
The first 30-minute episode on 10 September had 2.5 million viewers. The series, aired every Friday at 20h00, ends on 26 November. It follows the new life in the wild of the ten captive cheetahs which were released into the 22 000 ha private reserve between 18 May and 13 August.
Roughly a quarter of the world's cheetah population is found in Namibia.
The AfriCat Foundation was registered as a non-profit organisation in 1993 and since then has rescued over 1000 cheetahs and leopards which were trapped as a result of the conflict between humans and wildlife on farms. Over 85% of the big cats have been returned to the wild. AfriCat runs the largest cheetah and leopard rescue-and-release programme in the world. Now that the last stage of the Okonjima Private Nature Reserve (22 000 ha) has been completed, AfriCat is able to expand and accelerate its rehabilitation programme with the ultimate aim of returning more large carnivores to the wild. The rehabilitation programme gives them the opportunity to hone their hunting skills and become self-sustaining in a protected area.
All this is the result of the vision of Wayne Hanssen who took over Okonjima, his parent's farm, in 1991. As a boy he had fostered a dream of an animal sanctuary where cattle farming would make way for a private Nature Reserve and no animal would be harmed, where predators would be allowed to hunt without being punished. In order to make this happen, the Hanssens created various guest accommodation facilities, and the work of the AfriCat Foundation is the key to the Okonjima experience.
Do cheetahs dash off into freedom as soon as they have the chance?
If they are wild cheetahs, released after only a short time in captivity, they will ''charge out', usually never to be seen again. Captive cheetahs, however, become habituated if they have been in captivity for a while. They seem to find a strange comfort in their captive environment, and their release into the wild is quite daunting for them. Usually they have to be coaxed and bribed with an easy meal before they are prepared to leave the familiarity of their fenced-in area. All of them wear radio-collars so that their welfare and hunting successes can be monitored daily.
In September AfriCat also released four wild dogs which had been in their care since May 2005. They were part of a litter of seven puppies buried alive after the rest of the pack had been poisoned by communal farmers. Raising these puppies was the hardest project ever tackled by AfriCat. Their eyes were still closed and they had no immunity. But they became famous from the start, when their first weeks were filmed for a British television programme. When the four survivors were old enough they were moved to a new area, far from human activity. On the day of their release they were nevertheless a little reluctant at first to embrace their freedom, but by the afternoon they had already chased a family of warthogs and the next morning they were seen taking down their first kill - a kudu! After five years in captivity instinct still kicked in.
Christina Rockstroh
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