Mountain Zebra National Park: Cheetah re-collared to continue tracking efforts!

South African National Parks (SANParks) has announced that cheetah conservation in Mountain Zebra National Park (MZNP) outside Cradock in South Africa's Eastern Cape got a welcomed boost. A new cheetah collar was donated to the National Park, which was fitted to one of the MZNP's resident females. The collar fitted previously was about to reach the end of its life span.
Mountain Zebra National Park is currently home to eight cheetahs. Of these, four are collared. The National Park is the only one in South Africa offering a cheetah tracking activity, and these cheetahs are the ones which are sought out by activity guides through the use of a VHF (very high frequency) telemetry device. If guests are lucky enough, they could get to within 40 metres of one or more cheetah in their natural habitat. They also help MZNP's Management gather ecological data for research purposes which help in the management of the species.
Cheetahs were reintroduced to Mountain Zebra National Park in 2007 after being absent from the plains of the Karoo for 130 years.

Eswatini: Cheetah spotted for the first time in over 30 years!

The Times of Swaziland, a daily newspaper in Eswatini (formerly called Swaziland), is reporting that a cheetah has been spotted in Eswatini for the first time in over 30 years. According to the newspaper, the aninmal was spotted by rangers at around 15:00 on 16 September 2023 during a game drive in the Mlawula Nature Reserve in the country's Lubombo Region. The Times of Swaziland is quoting the Director of Parks at the Eswatini National Trust Commission (ENTC), Thulani Methula, saying that cheetahs were thought to be a locally extinct species around the 1970s but said four more cheetahs were reintroduced between 1988 and 1990 at a place called Mapelepele at Mlawula (Nature Reserve). He further said that the last sighting of a cheetah in the Eswatini was in 1991. The ENTC has since installed cameras around the area the cheetah was spotted in the Mlawula Nature Reserve to find out if it is a single animal or a family of cheetahs that has moved into the area. We'll keep you posted!

Photo (taken in Kruger National Park) by Ron Ansell on Unsplash

The Mlawula Nature Reserve is located in the Lubombo Region in north-eastern Eswatini about 100km from Manzini. The Nature Reserve is covering an area of approximately 16,500 hectares and is adjacent to Mbuluzi Game Reserve, Simunye Nature Reserve, and Hlane Royal National Park. According to ENTC's website, the Mlawula Nature Reserve "offers rare opportunities for visitors to walk self-guided on the trails through the bushveld".

Mozambique: After 60 years, cheetahs return to Maputo Special Reserve!

Mozambique’s National Administration for Conservation Areas (ANAC) in cooperation with the Peace Parks Foundation and support from the Ashia Cheetah Conservation, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance has re-introduced four cheetahs to the Maputo Special Reserve in southern Mozambique, where the species was wiped out more than 60 years ago. The big cats are currently undergoing an acclimatisation period, before being released into the 104 200 ha reserve, completing this reintroduction of the world’s fastest land mammal. Two male cheetahs were flown in from the &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, whilst an adult female and her sub-adult female cub were flown from the Waterval Private Game Reserve near Kimberley in the Northern Cape.
The reintroduction of the cats into the Maputo Special Reserve is part of an ambitious goal to establish a healthy metapopulation (a group of spatially separated populations of the same species which interact at some level) that contributes to the conservation of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), a species which has been eliminated from 90% of its range in Africa, with an estimated population of only 6 600 individuals remaining.

The Maputo Special Reserve is located on Maputo Bay, approximately 100 kilometers southeast of the city of Maputo, Mozambique. In 2018, the Peace Parks Foundation signed a partnership agreement with Mozambique’s National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) to jointly develop the Maputo Special Reserve and the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve according to a strategic business plan, with the Peace Parks Foundation providing technical and financial support for conservation and tourism development activities.

Zambia: Cheetahs have returned to the Bangweulu Wetlands after almost a century!

African Parks, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that manages 19 protected areas in 11 African countries, has announced that the Bangweulu Wetlands in Zambia has received a small founding group of cheetahs – the first of their species to return to this community-owned protected area in north-eastern Zambia in almost a century. The relocation of an initial three male cheetahs from South Africa took place in December 2020 resulting from a collaboration between Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), African Parks, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), Ashia Cheetah Conservation and National Geographic.
The cheetahs were safely released into temporary enclosures especially designed to support their acclimation and will be fitted with tracking collars to enable their long-term monitoring. The founder population is genetically unrelated and was sourced from three reserves, namely Mountain Zebra National Park (Eastern Cape), Rogge Cloof (Northern Cape) and Welgevonden (Waterberg, Limpopo). According to African Parks, the Bangweulu Wetlands is of suitable size (6,570 km²) and habitat to support a viable cheetah population. Its connectivity to other protected areas provides the added potential of establishing a healthy metapopulation to promote the long-term persistence of the species in the region.

Bangweulu Landscape - Credit: African Parks/Steve Lorenz Fischer

The Bangweulu Wetlands is designated as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International and as a RAMSAR Wetland of International Importance. Located in north-eastern Zambia, the community-owned protected area is one of Africa’s most important wetland systems containing a unique floral and faunal diversity. The Bangweulu Wetlands supports 50,000 people who rely on the landscape’s rich resources. Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), six Community Resource Boards (CRBs) and African Parks partnered in 2008 to manage this vital 6,645 km² aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem.

Cheetahs reintroduced in Malawi after a 20 year absence!

A small founder population of four cheetahs has been successfully relocated to Liwonde National Park in Malawi. The relocation of the cheetahs follows a 20-year absence of the species in the country. The four predators were translocated from four South African game reserves: the Phinda Game Reserve and Welgevonden Private Game Reserve each made a male cheetah available, while Mountain Zebra National Park and Amakhala Private Game Reserve each made a female cheetah available.

Liwonde National Park is located in southern Malawi, about 160km north of Blantyre. It is situated on the left bank of the Shire river between Lake Malombe and Liwonde. Although only about 580km² is size, the national park is perhaps the most popular of all the game parks in Malawi.

The translocation of the four cheetahs was led by African Parks, a conservation non-profit that manages national parks and protected areas on behalf of governments across the continent, in partnership with South Africa's Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and Malawi's Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW).

Pretoria: Rietvlei Nature Reserve introduced a male cheetah after a two year absence!

The Rietvlei Nature Reserve, situated between Johannesburg and Pretoria, has introduced a new male cheetah into its 3 800ha reserve after a two year absence in order to regulate the prey population in the reserve. The reserve was left without cheetah after the two male cheetah, which got reintroduced into Rietvlei in March 2003, died in 2012 and 2013 from old age. Rietvlei Game Reserve and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) are currently also searching for a female cheetah to join the new male. This should happen by early 2015. Rietvlei Nature Reserve forms part of EWT's Cheetah Metapopulation Project.



Rietvlei Nature Reserve, owned and managed by the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, is situated 18km from the centre of Pretoria and 38km from the OR Tambo International Airport. Located within the reserve is the Rietvlei Dam. The reserve is home to blesbuck, black wildebeest, red hartebeest, eland, Burchell's zebra, waterbuck, reedbuck, springbuck, mountain reedbuck, steenbuck, grey duiker, as well as to cheetah, leopard, buffalo, hippopotamus and white rhino.

Mabula Private Game Reserve introduced first female cheetah

The Mabula Private Game Reserve in Limpopo has released a first female cheetah to the reserve in December 2013. This follows the successful release of two male cheetahs into the reserve in January 2012. The two brothers have been studied extensively in order to determine if they would adapt to their new home and to what extend they would impact their prey species. The results of the studies convinced the Mabula management to introduce a female to the property to join the two brothers.
The new female cheetah was born in the Southern Cape and came to the Mabula Private Game Reserve in November 2013 when she was 20 month old. She was placed in a boma in order for her to re-orientate herself to her new surroundings before she was introduced to the Mabula Private Game Reserve.

The Mabula Private Game Reserve is a private game reserve situated in the Limpopo province of South Africa. It is about 12,000 hectares in area and is about 45 km from Bela Bela (Warmbaths). The reserve is home to the Big 5, the Small 5 as well as to further sixty species of mammals and about three hundred bird species.

Earthrise: Saving Namibia's Cheetahs (video)

Earthrise, a show on Al Jazeera covering all sorts of environmental issues, recently visited the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia to find out what it is done to save the cheetahs in the the Southwest African country. The show's host, Russell Beard, talks to the founder of the CCF, Laurie Marker, gets an inside view on the intiatives of the Fund and on what it is done to protect the mammal and its habitat through education, conservation, public policy, science and research.



The Cheetah Conservation Fund is situated 44km from Otjiwarongo on the D2440. Windhoek is located about 3.5 hrs (by car) from the CCF; it also takes 3.5 hrs from Etosha's Namutoni Gate and 2.5hrs from the Okaukuejo Gate. The CCF is open daily, all year round, from 9am-5pm, except on Christmas day and reservations are not required for standard day tours.

South Africa: Wild cheetahs return to the Free State after 100-year absence

For the first time in about 100 years, wild cheetahs have been reintroduced to the Free State in South Africa as part of the Endangered Wildlife Trust's (EWT) Carnivore Conservation Programme. Two male cheetahs, born in July 2010, got released into the privately owned Laohu Valley Reserve. Both cats are coming from the 5,700-hectare Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa's Eastern Cape and have been roaming free from birth, hunting and fending for themselves. A female cheetah will get introduced to the Laohu Valley Reserve in near future, so that the province will hopefully see the first wild cubs born in over a century pretty soon.
The Laohu Valley Reserve, located near Philippolis, is the largest protected area in the Free State. The 350km² reserve is known for its ambitious tiger rewilding and reintroduction project in a last-ditch effort to save the South China Tiger from extinction.
According to the Endangered Wildlife Trust, cheetahs have been reintroduced into approximately 48 reserves across southern Africa for tourism and ecological reasons, and 272 cheetahs, sourced from South Africa and Namibia, currently occur in fenced reserves.

Did you know... Namibia has the world's highest population of cheetahs

According to Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), the country has the world's highest population of cheetahs. Of the approx. 12,400 cheetahs remaining worldwide, 2,500 - 3,000 cheetahs can be found in Namibia. About 90% of country's cheetahs are living outside of protected reserves, primarily on commercial livestock farmlands. Their usual habitat in Namibia are grasslands, savannahs, areas of dense vegetation and mountainous terrain.
The cheetah is the world's fastest land mammal, reaching speeds of up to 110km/hour. The most specialised of all the 36 species of cats is currently inhabiting 25 countries in Africa as well as parts of the Middle East. Cheetahs are included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of vulnerable species.

Did you know... that a cheetah only has about 20sec to make a kill before its muscles burn out? >>

Kapama Private Game Reserve: Two new cheetahs released into the reserve

The Kapama Private Game Reserve, situated just out of Hoedspruit in South Africa's Limpop province, recently introduced two new cheetahs into the reserve. The animals, a mother and her daughter, are originally from Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape, but spend the last year already at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC), which is located within the Kapama Private Game Reserve.
The Kapama Private Game Reserve spreads from the R40 on the west to the Thornybush boundary to the east, and from the Eastgate Airport road to the north to the Klaserie Dam on the south.
The reserve's 13000 hectares are home to 42 mammal species including the famed 'Big 5' - lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino, and approximately 350 bird species.

Cheetahs released in Mabula Private Game Reserve

Two male two-and-a-half-year-old cheetahs have been introduced to the Mabula Private Game Reserve in Limpopo. The reserve is about 12,000 hectares in area and is about 45 km from Bela Bela (Warmbaths). This is the first time cheetah have been introduced to the reserve.

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Both cats were born and grew up in the Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape and are completely independent from their mother and have been hunting on their own for at least six months. Before they were introduced into the Mabula Private Game Reserve, the cats spent some weeks in a boma to become familiar with their surroundings and to curb their instinct to run away, in an attempt to return to where they came from.

Wildlife video: Two cheetahs vs. one wildebeest

Shot during the annual "Great Migration" in Kenya & Tanzania, the following video shows how two young male cheetahs are taking down prey much larger than themselves - a wildebeest. Cheetahs are usually solitary creatures living a nomadic lifestyle, but sometimes young male cheetahs, especially litter mates, team up with another cheetah to maintain their territory. Impressive! Kudos National Geographic!

Did you know... that a cheetah only has about 20sec to make a kill before its muscles burn out?

The cheetah, which is inhabiting most of most of Africa and parts of the Middle East, is the fastest land-living animal. It can get as fast as up to 120km/h on distances up to 500m and has the ability to accelerate from 0 to over 100km/h in around three seconds. More facts about the cheetah and its hunting in the following video:

Video: National Geographic presents some interesting facts about lions >>

Cheetahs relocated from Mountain Zebra NP to Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre

South African National Parks (SANParks) projected in 2010 that some of the cheetahs in its Mountain Zebra National Park might need to be relocated to a different park in near future because the genetic integrity of the cheetah population as well as the park’s ecosystem might otherwise be under certain pressure.

Five cheetahs from the Mountain Zebra National Park population were therefore now relocated to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) in Limpopo as part of their ongoing breeding programme. The cheetahs will remain in quarantine for three months before joining other cheetahs.

The Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) focuses on the conservation of rare, vulnerable or endangered animals. Cheetah Conservation is one of their core disciplines. The HESC presents a fascinating insight into rare and vulnerable animal species and animal conservation efforts at large, it offers fun and interactive tours, drives, and excursions. It has a range of accommodation options for visitors looking for a longer stay - an ideal base from which to explore the area.

Mountain Zebra National Park: Cheetah tracking & guided walks

Visitors will be able to join a guide in searching for the elusive Mountain Zebra National Park cheetahs by means of tracking with radio telemetry equipment.
Cheetah were introduced to the Park in 2007 following an absence of over 100 years from the area. The species has adapted very well to the Park, increasing in number from four in 2007 to over 30 animals. A number of cheetah have been rehomed in the last few months to ensure that the integrity of the natural ecosystem balance is not affected.

The new activities include two new guided walks:

• a three-hour route and a hike up the Salpeterskop to view a chessboard relic from the early 1900s.
• Guided walks, cheetah tracking and guided drives are led by fully qualified, knowledgeable guides.

The opening of guided walks follows the closure of all hiking trails in July 2010 following the tragic death of a hiker who was attacked by a buffalo on one of the hiking trails.
The two short walking trails (1-kilometre and 2.5-kilometre trails) are available to visitors as self-walk options, having been enclosed, along with the rest camp area, with electrified fencing.


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The three-day hiking trail has yet to re-open but the two mountain cottages, formerly used exclusively as hiking trail huts, are now available as an ideal rustic getaway option for visitors with high clearance vehicles.
The 28 000-hectare Mountain Zebra National Park is situated near Cradock in the Eastern Cape. (via sanparks.org)

accommodation in the National Park >>

Tour of the day: Big cat conservation holiday in Namibia & Botswana

Country: Botswana, Namibia
Departures: 2009: 16 Aug, 30 Aug, 20 Sep, 4 Oct, 25 Oct, 8 Nov
Price: From £1690 (13 days) excluding flights. Price includes food, accommodation and project contribution

UPDATE: Last minute deal GBP1500. Applies to 4 Oct, 25 Oct & 8 Nov departures only.

the things you'll be doing
On these wildlife volunteering vacations you will start at Victoria Falls in Zambia and then travel to the Caprivi delta of Namibia and Botswana to study lions, cheetahs and leopards and their interactions with the local human population. The Caprivi delta boasts the same amazing array of African megafauna as the Okavango or Chobe National Park, but without the crowds. In fact, it is virtually unexplored and unmapped, and your job on the expedition will be to track, capture and relocate (if necessary) lions, cheetahs and leopards in order to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. You will also help our scientists to map the area properly and talk to local people about how predators and people can live side by side.

the project
These wildlife volunteering vacations will conduct a survey of five of Africa’s large carnivore species (lion, leopard, spotted hyaena, cheetah and wild dog) their dominant prey species (cape buffalo, giraffe, red lechwe, puku, sitatunga, roan antelope, kudu, Burchell’s zebra, blue wildebeest, warthog, bushpig, impala, common duiker, steenbok, numerous small mammal, primate and bird species) and domesticated species such as cattle, goats, pigs, cats and dogs. We will capture, collar and monitor key study animals and respond to incidents of livestock depredation in neighboring communities.
The expedition will also survey human populations in the area, conduct investigations into the ecology of human-predator conflict (HPC) and contribute to the development of rural livelihood strategies that will promote coexistence between people and predators and be implemented on a national scale. The area is of very significant conservation importance but also experiences the highest number of HPC incidents in Namibia and some of the highest in Africa. Data collected by this expedition will be crucial in our mission to combat the top threat to carnivore conservation in Africa today, namely human-predator conflict.

more info & tour booking >>
online flight booking >>
tours & accommodation booking >>