Please become a conservation
partner and assist us by covering part or all of the annual costs for
caring for these non-releasable cheetahs. Each cheetah costs CCF an
estimated £2,500 a year in care. These costs include food, veterinary
care and pen maintenance.
If you sponsor the cost of
the care of a CCF non-releasable cheetah you
will receive two updates during a year (please provide an e-mail address
for updates if other than yours). You can also create your own
personalised Sponsorship Certificate to print out, and
download a special photo poster of your cheetah, taken from the official
cheetah ID book in Namibia. Each JPEG poster file is up to
1MB in size and up to 250mm across, and shows pictures of the cheetah,
highlighting distinguishing markings for identification. IMPORTANT:
If you want the sponsorship to be a gift, be sure to note this using
the Message to Seller facility on the main PayPal payment screen.
To create a Sponsorship Certificate
or download a poster, be sure to click ‘Return to Merchant’
after you have completed your PayPal transaction, or you will
not see our ‘Thank You’ page, which contains the information
required.
If you sponsor a cheetah for
a whole year (£2,500) you will receive special recognition at
our headquarters in Namibia.
Sponsoring is simple! Just click
the 'Sponsor Me' button under any cheetah's story. You will
be taken to a PayPal secure payment page, where you can choose how
much you want to sponsor your cheetah for. Once you've sponsored one
cheetah, you can
come back and sponsor another one
if you wish. Here are six of our resident cheetahs. See the other pages for more.
Shadow
The CCF first worked on Shadow when she was caught with her family
on a farm near Osire, when she was about four months old. She
was then released. A farmer recaptured the family three months
later, then sent them to a guest farm. Shadow arrived at CCF 3
years later, still wearing a CCF eartag. She had been abandoned.
Many people are tempted to keep cheetahs for tourism, but this
is at least a ten-year commitment and few people understand the
legalities, costs and commitment needed to care for captive cheetahs.
Merlot
Merlot was born in January
2000 and arrived at CCF in August 2001. Merlot was caught on a
game farm outside Okahandja about nine months before coming to
CCF. He was with his sister Shiraz,
and their mother Chardonnay. Chardonnay had a serious foot injury,
cause unknown, that remained untreated until her arrival at CCF.
The infection healed, but she
still had a limp on her right hind foot. Chardonnay could not
be released and due to further health problems, she was euthanised
in 2003.
Nina
Nina was born in January 2000, and she arrived for the first
time in August 2000 with her brother Josie when they were 8 months
old. They arrived with their mother, whose hind foot had been
badly injured by a gin trap. After five months of treatment, all
three were re-released. Sadly, the mother’s radio collar
showed no movement a few weeks after they were released. Research
staff tracked the collar on foot, only to find that the collared
cheetah had died. The cause of death was unknown, as vultures
had already eaten a lot of the carcass. Both Nina and Josie were
caught on neighbour Harry Schneider-Waterberg’s farm. They
were very hungry, but otherwise healthy.
Solo
Solo was born in February 2000, and arrived at CCF in January
2001. She was caught on a sheep farm south of Windhoek with her
siblings when she was estimated at 13 months old. What happened
to her mother is unknown. In 2001, her sister and brother went
to White Oak Conservation Centre in Florida, USA. Female cheetahs teach their young vital survival skills, including
hunting. Without their mother for up to 18 to 22 months, they
do not learn these survival skills and
are unable to live as wild cheetahs.
Bella
"I arrived at CCF in January 2009 when I was about 8 months'
old. I had been rescued by a cheetah friendly farmer just past
Okahandja who found me living in a small chicken coup on a neighbouring
farm. The caring farmer took me and called CCF to collect me;
he also took me to the vet for initial vaccinations. CCF staff
collected me and found me in excellent condition inside a well
kept dog pen, but persuading me to enter their cheetah transport
box proved quite tricky. Eventually a member of staff had to enter
the pen armed with a towel which was placed over me so they could
grab me by the scruff of my neck and then carefully placed me
the box. "
The fate of Bellas mother is unknown but being separated
from her at such a young age means that Bella will not be able
to be released back into the wild as she has been denied the essential
life skills that her mother would have taught her.
Bella means Beautiful in Italian and this couldnt
be more appropriate. When Bella arrived CCF staff and volunteers
couldnt believe how adorably cute she was, so much so that
Bella often becomes many visitors favourite CCF cheetah.
Bella was kept on her own for the first couple of weeks but fortunately
we had an opportunity to place her with another young female called
Padme. Padme is several months older than Bella and has become
her adopted older sister. Bella used to be very shy and would
run away from her keepers whenever she saw them but since being
with Padme she has grown in confidence and is now following Padmes
example by hissing, spitting and slapping her front paws at them,
although rather than being intimidating Bella still cant
help but look very very cute!