Cheetah Outreach
Cheetah Outreach is a non-profit organisation, promoting the survival of the free ranging, Southern African cheetah through environmental education and partnering conservation initiatives. They raise money through encounters, where guests are able to interact with a cheetah. The funds raised at the main facility are then used to fund the Anatolian Shepard Guarding dog programme. This programme places puppies on farms where they bond with livestock and protect their herds against all predators. The cost of the placement and the first year of food bills and veterinary expenses are covered by Cheetah Outreach and in return the farmers must sign a contract that states they will not shoot trap or poison any animal on their land. For every dog that is placed 1000ha of land becomes ‘cheetah friendly’. I have always wanted to work with cheetahs, as I believe they are the most enigmatic of all big cat species, and so I was extremely excited to be able to volunteer at Cheetah Outreach. The time I spent at the facility has been one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. I have learnt more than I could ever have imagined; not only about conservation and husbandry of big cats, but about myself and people in general.
Before the placement I set a series of objectives that I was determined to reach through volunteering at Cheetah Outreach.
1) To see hands on community-based conservation in action
2) To work with cheetahs to learn the basic husbandry practises involved in caring for captive big cats
3) To become involved in environmental education both with the local South African community and with visiting tourists to highlight the importance of conservation.
4) To understand how tourist/cheetah encounters can be useful in spreading the message of cheetah conservation.
I was able to achieve each one of these objectives as well as experiencing many new and different things. This report will aim to outline how I met each of these objectives, what I learnt from my time in South Africa and what it really meant to me.
From the outset I was heavily involved in the husbandry of all the animals housed at the facility. From this placement I have learnt that the least fun jobs are always the most important, particularly the daily poo collections and bleaching water buckets to ensure the cheetahs enclosures were up to standard. Interacting with the cheetahs, whilst doing this essential maintenance, meant that they very quickly got to know you which made it easier to move up through the ranks of the volunteers and become a trusted member of the team.
Meeting the needs of the animals was not just about making sure they get the right diet and have access to proper veterinary care but also making sure they weren’t bored by giving them things to do that encouraged them to exhibit natural behaviours. The most enjoyable part of the placement was preparing different kinds of enrichment for all of the animals. This was really about thinking outside of the box to come up with novel ideas to keep the animals stimulated. It was incredibly rewarding seeing them enjoy a new toy that had been designed just for them. As cheetahs are known for their incredible speed, it now seems ridiculous that, before I left, I had never considered that the cheetahs would get to ‘run’ as they would in the wild. By learning how to set up the motorised pulley system, I was able to assist with the ‘runs’ that the facility would put on for the cheetahs. There is nothing quite as exhilarating as having a 65kg male cheetah running at 50 mph straight towards you! These runs were a stark reminder that, no matter how relaxed the cheetahs seemed, they are still, incredibly powerful, wild animals. This was a very important lesson as it was easy to become complacent when working directly with the cheetahs. After seeing that they had not lost their wild instincts my respect for them certainly increased dramatically.
The environmental education aspect of the Cheetah Outreach programme is something I wish I had become more involved in during the course of my placement. I was intrigued to find that, although the cheetah is the least dangerous of all the big cats, many of the locals are most afraid of them. By bringing children from local townships and more rural communities it was possible to break this negative perception of the cheetah that has been passed down through many generations. Unfortunately many of these children did not speak English so I was not able to be as involved with the local environmental education programme as I would have liked.
There were, however, many school groups from the UK that I was able to work with which was just as rewarding as I felt like I was able to get these children excited about cheetahs and our programme because I was able to bring the conservation message back to things they could relate to in the UK.
From this experience I have learnt that it doesn’t matter how enthusiastic you are, some people are just not interested in conservation and the things that I am passionate about other people are just not aware of. This realisation has only made me more determined to spread the message of the importance of conservation of the most endangered species not only for the sake of conservation but to help locals understand what conservation means to their economy and how protecting endangered species can benefit us all.
I did have reservations about using animals for encounters from an ethical point of view, particularly when the vast majority of the tourists that came to visit the facility from overseas were more interested in being photographed with a big cat than they were in the conservation message.
I quickly came to understand that keeping these cheetahs in captivity was vital to raise funds to support the in-situ conservation project that Cheetah Outreach supports. Unlike the runs, some of the activities on offer at the facility were not natural experiences for the cheetahs; such as beach walks or offsite functions at nearby hotels but seeing the way people reacted to the cheetahs up close, I realised, was something that could not be replicated by a distant sighting or film. It is the emotional bond that the tourists created, with the cheetahs used for encounters, which sparked an interest in the programme. Even those who seemed relatively disinterested in the beginning were full of questions once they had had an encounter. I have also learnt that by keeping cheetahs in captivity the captive population is acting as a genetic insurance policy for their wild brothers. Due to the inbred nature of the cheetah, programmes like Cheetah Outreach in conjunction with the De Wildt breeding facility are maintaining as many genetic lines as they can through carefully managed breeding. The cubs produced by this programme are then trained to be ambassadors for their species and sent to conservation programmes around the world where they help emphasise the work Cheetah Outreach is doing for people who are not able to travel to South Africa.
Possibly the most humbling part of working at Cheetah Outreach was meeting the locals that are employed by the facility. These are people that have nothing, living in townships, in situations beyond what I could ever comprehend but they have the most wonderful community spirit. They are always cheerful and the first to offer help if you needed it and it made me realise just how privileged my life is. By involving the local people in the project Cheetah Outreach are also supporting the local communities and by doing so spreading the message of cheetah conservation to a group of people that would not necessarily be able to afford a cheetah encounter.
Being passionate about conservation, big cats and South Africa, my time at Cheetah Outreach has been truly eye opening and life changing. The lessons I have learnt will stay with me far into the future and I hope that one day I will be have to opportunity to create a bond with such a majestic and elegant animal in the way that the handlers at Cheetah Outreach have been able to do with their cheetahs. I would recommend that anyone interested in working with big cats and making an active contribution to conservation should consider a placement at Cheetah Outreach.
Before the placement I set a series of objectives that I was determined to reach through volunteering at Cheetah Outreach.
1) To see hands on community-based conservation in action
2) To work with cheetahs to learn the basic husbandry practises involved in caring for captive big cats
3) To become involved in environmental education both with the local South African community and with visiting tourists to highlight the importance of conservation.
4) To understand how tourist/cheetah encounters can be useful in spreading the message of cheetah conservation.
I was able to achieve each one of these objectives as well as experiencing many new and different things. This report will aim to outline how I met each of these objectives, what I learnt from my time in South Africa and what it really meant to me.
From the outset I was heavily involved in the husbandry of all the animals housed at the facility. From this placement I have learnt that the least fun jobs are always the most important, particularly the daily poo collections and bleaching water buckets to ensure the cheetahs enclosures were up to standard. Interacting with the cheetahs, whilst doing this essential maintenance, meant that they very quickly got to know you which made it easier to move up through the ranks of the volunteers and become a trusted member of the team.
Meeting the needs of the animals was not just about making sure they get the right diet and have access to proper veterinary care but also making sure they weren’t bored by giving them things to do that encouraged them to exhibit natural behaviours. The most enjoyable part of the placement was preparing different kinds of enrichment for all of the animals. This was really about thinking outside of the box to come up with novel ideas to keep the animals stimulated. It was incredibly rewarding seeing them enjoy a new toy that had been designed just for them. As cheetahs are known for their incredible speed, it now seems ridiculous that, before I left, I had never considered that the cheetahs would get to ‘run’ as they would in the wild. By learning how to set up the motorised pulley system, I was able to assist with the ‘runs’ that the facility would put on for the cheetahs. There is nothing quite as exhilarating as having a 65kg male cheetah running at 50 mph straight towards you! These runs were a stark reminder that, no matter how relaxed the cheetahs seemed, they are still, incredibly powerful, wild animals. This was a very important lesson as it was easy to become complacent when working directly with the cheetahs. After seeing that they had not lost their wild instincts my respect for them certainly increased dramatically.
The environmental education aspect of the Cheetah Outreach programme is something I wish I had become more involved in during the course of my placement. I was intrigued to find that, although the cheetah is the least dangerous of all the big cats, many of the locals are most afraid of them. By bringing children from local townships and more rural communities it was possible to break this negative perception of the cheetah that has been passed down through many generations. Unfortunately many of these children did not speak English so I was not able to be as involved with the local environmental education programme as I would have liked.
There were, however, many school groups from the UK that I was able to work with which was just as rewarding as I felt like I was able to get these children excited about cheetahs and our programme because I was able to bring the conservation message back to things they could relate to in the UK.
From this experience I have learnt that it doesn’t matter how enthusiastic you are, some people are just not interested in conservation and the things that I am passionate about other people are just not aware of. This realisation has only made me more determined to spread the message of the importance of conservation of the most endangered species not only for the sake of conservation but to help locals understand what conservation means to their economy and how protecting endangered species can benefit us all.
I did have reservations about using animals for encounters from an ethical point of view, particularly when the vast majority of the tourists that came to visit the facility from overseas were more interested in being photographed with a big cat than they were in the conservation message.
I quickly came to understand that keeping these cheetahs in captivity was vital to raise funds to support the in-situ conservation project that Cheetah Outreach supports. Unlike the runs, some of the activities on offer at the facility were not natural experiences for the cheetahs; such as beach walks or offsite functions at nearby hotels but seeing the way people reacted to the cheetahs up close, I realised, was something that could not be replicated by a distant sighting or film. It is the emotional bond that the tourists created, with the cheetahs used for encounters, which sparked an interest in the programme. Even those who seemed relatively disinterested in the beginning were full of questions once they had had an encounter. I have also learnt that by keeping cheetahs in captivity the captive population is acting as a genetic insurance policy for their wild brothers. Due to the inbred nature of the cheetah, programmes like Cheetah Outreach in conjunction with the De Wildt breeding facility are maintaining as many genetic lines as they can through carefully managed breeding. The cubs produced by this programme are then trained to be ambassadors for their species and sent to conservation programmes around the world where they help emphasise the work Cheetah Outreach is doing for people who are not able to travel to South Africa.
Possibly the most humbling part of working at Cheetah Outreach was meeting the locals that are employed by the facility. These are people that have nothing, living in townships, in situations beyond what I could ever comprehend but they have the most wonderful community spirit. They are always cheerful and the first to offer help if you needed it and it made me realise just how privileged my life is. By involving the local people in the project Cheetah Outreach are also supporting the local communities and by doing so spreading the message of cheetah conservation to a group of people that would not necessarily be able to afford a cheetah encounter.
Being passionate about conservation, big cats and South Africa, my time at Cheetah Outreach has been truly eye opening and life changing. The lessons I have learnt will stay with me far into the future and I hope that one day I will be have to opportunity to create a bond with such a majestic and elegant animal in the way that the handlers at Cheetah Outreach have been able to do with their cheetahs. I would recommend that anyone interested in working with big cats and making an active contribution to conservation should consider a placement at Cheetah Outreach.