Two young cheetahs roam part of Rietvlei nature reserve

The two 19-month-old sub-adult cheetahs, Njozi and Joe are now roaming free in Rietvlei nature reserve after they were released on Monday morning. Both had been in an enclosed boma in the past month. Ahead of the release they were starved for three days and were lured out of the boma with a carcass. The trick was for them to follow the carcass and then close the gate. At first, they were wary to leave the boma. Joe left the boma first where after Njozi followed.

The young male, Joe is going to be moved to Mozambique early next year, while the female will stay behind and hopefully produce many offspring.

Two males with Botswana genetics will join the female in January 2021 and hopefully produce offspring with unrelated genetics.

Vincent van der Merwe of Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) said that the cats have acclimatised to their new conditions and their homing instincts have been killed. “There is no longer an instinct for them to walk back from where they came from. “They will now be in free-roaming conditions hopefully for the rest of their lives,” he said. Van der Merwe added that this was hopefully the beginning of a 10-year stint, to lots of cubs and new genetics spread to other reserves across the country.

“We got some bad news last week about Kiara (the original Rietvlei female), who was killed by two male cheetahs in the last two weeks, but the good news is that Sahara has given birth to four cubs recently. “We want to ensure that preying numbers don’t go beyond carrying capacity and we are trying to strike a balance. “It is important for fenced reserves to maintain ecological balance,” said Van der Merwe, adding that South Africa was the only country in the world with a growing wild cheetah population.

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