Two Female Cheetahs Released in Bellebenno Training Camp

We just released two female cheetahs scheduled for re-wilding, Luna and Xena. The release went very smoothly, with the two cats running after the feeding bakkie out the gate of their holding area into CCF’s 4,000-ha Bellebeno game camp, which is used for re-wilding. The two females were fitted with satellite collars to follow movements throughout the day and night. CCF rangers Ryan and Rachel will be tracking them as well. The cats were fed a carcass and settled down after eating. They appeared interested in their new area and I’m sure will begin exploring this evening. We will provide updates as often as possible to keep everyone posted on their progress.

Xena and Luna release into the Bellebenno 4,000-ha game camp.

The release occurred at 1pm today with a team of CCF staff and interns watching (and getting stuck in a hole). It's raining really hard – nearly 50 mm in a couple hours this evening.

Stuck.

Other exciting events at CCF include goat kids being born (2 female dairy kids born today), along with lambs being born daily (15 more to go). We are also expecting another liter of LSGD at the end of the month to Kari, who is looking really healthy, and our scat-detection dogs are really liking their new trainer, Adam.

CCF's Dog Trainer Adam Bean with scant-detection dogs, Finn and Uschi.

We have had many special visitors: the British High Commissioner was here last weekend with her family, a group of learners from a Swedish high school spent two days with us this week, a group of teachers from the Pacific Lutheran College in Washington State who are doing internships in Windhoek schools, a group who were Peace Corp volunteers 19 years ago, and Dr. Rob Fleischer, the geneticist from the National Zoo in the US.

Pacific Lutheran College (Washington State) visited CCF.

British High Commissioner, Marianne Young, and her family, with CCF staff, interns and volunteers.

Cheetah purrs,

Laurie