Monday, March 12, 2007

Cheetah Park

Spier, in the heart of the Stellenbosch Winelands, has made land available to a group of hand-raised cheetahs in the care of the Cheetah Outreach Programme. It's a live and hands-on way to learn more about these incredible cats from a distance, or get up close and personal and even step inside the enclosure. Funnily enough, he cheetahs can also be booked for private functions.

The Cheetah Outreach assists the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in their efforts to ensure the survival of the free-ranging cheetah. This is done through education programmes that increase the awareness of the diminishing numbers of free-ranging cheetahs in the wild. Funds are raised for CCF to support their efforts in releasing trapped, wild cheetah and non-lethal predator control methods (i.e. placement of guard dogs in Namibian farmlands).

Cheetah Outreach was founded by Annie Beckhelling in January 1997 on a hectare of land donated by Spier. The education programme began with two cheetahs: Inca (6-year old male) whose role was to greet visitors at Spier and Shadow (1-year old male) who travelled to community events. At Spier, with an annual visitor-ship of 650,000 people, the cheetah ambassadors are able to greet more than 10% of the guests. By 1998 Shadow and his young nephew Nyana-Spier had already greeted in excess of 100,000 people.

These are my pics of this amazing experience:

Cheetah Lunch - Atkins would be proud
These creatures are truly majestic - the epitome of grace and power
Lazy bitches too - the sleep up to 18 hours a day
Circle of life - sure loves the bone


OMG! I'm petting a cheetah!!
Their purring is like an engine revving
Group pic with the Predator

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool. Who is the cute one to the right of you? I know the one to the left. :-)

Tony said...

What a great experience!

Ameet said...

Wow - you're petting it like a furry dog. I would have totally freaked out.

Andy said...

James - the "cute" one would be David.

Anthony - It was!!

Ameet - It was so totally cool. Their coats are a little bit waxy. Sorta like they were using too much product :-P Highly reccomend it.