In May 2020 we received a 17 month old male cheetah from Amakhosi Safari Lodge in KZN as part of the EWT cheetah metapopulation programme. The arrangement was a swap transaction, they gave us a male and we will return a male to them when the animal was ready, in terms of age, to be moved.
Our DGR male, son of the Rietvlei female, is now 24 months and was translocated to Amakhosi Safari Lodge on Thursday 04/03/2021 with the assistance of the EWT cheetah metapopulation programme coordinator which transported the cheetah.
The operation went very well, and our cheetah was offloaded safely at his new home in KZN.
How do you travel with a cheetah?
After they are darted, they are loaded into a crate, and then the drugs are reversed, and the crate closed. The cheetah travels 100% awake. The wind movement while driving prevents the animal from overheating.
This translocation forms part of the meta-population programme to increase the genetic diversity and health of cheetah in South Africa and Africa.
