A New Cheetah!

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Today was a great day for the Thanda Cheetah population. They were joined by a new female which was released onto the reserve.  The three year old cat was born at Mountain Zebra National Park and came to Thanda via the Hoedspruit Endangered Wildlife Center.

Faye Peters and Phillip Lennon from the popular South African TV program 50/50 documented the event.

The Thanda Wildlife Team (led by Mariana Venter) with the help of specialists from WildlifeACTFund (led by Simon Morgan) worked for seven hours to convince the young lady to leave her boma (A boma is an enclosure in which animals are normally kept at full board from the time of arrival at Thanda to their release onto the reserve).

The Thanda Wildlife Team and Researchers will be monitoring the animal for the next few month to see how she is doing in her new home and I will try to get more pictures of her in her new surroundings 🙂

Enjoy this picture documentary!

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1 – A portrait of the lady!

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2 – Still in the boma.

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3 – Simon Morgan (WildlifeACTFund) trying to spot the cat in the boma.

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4 – Mariana Venter (Thanda Private Game Reserve) explains to the 50/50 team  the use of bait.

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5 – A small step for a Cheetah …    … see you around 🙂