 |
"Like proverbial spots
before your eyes, one minute a species is here, the next minute it is
gone forever" - Howard Buffett |
|
The De Wildt Cheetah & Wildlife Centre |
|
||
|
In June 2005 I was privileged to visit
the
De Wildt Cheetah & Wildlife Centre,
about 40 Kilometers outside of Pretoria, the capital city of South
Africa. The highlight of my visit was to come into contact with
the rare and stunningly beautiful king cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus).
I was surprised to learn that the centre is not just home to cheetahs,
but also to the highly endangered African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus).
The centre serves as a sanctuary for Wild Dogs as an
alternative to being killed by game farm owners, who show very little
tolerance to these animals on their properties. The De Wildt
Cheetah & Wildlife Centre also particpates in re-location and
re-introduction programs of Wild Dog packs into approved wild areas. Other animals cared for at the centre include brown hyaena, serval, caracal, riverine rabbit, suni antelope, blue and red duiker and vultures - including the rare Egyptian. |
 |
||
|
Craig Shepstone, resident field guide, took us on a very interesting two hour tour explaining the various program |
|
||
|
activities of the centre. The De Wildt Cheetah Centre was established in 1971 with the aim of breeding endangered species. Over the past two decades the Centre's efforts have resulted in the major achievement of breeding what was once a threatened species, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). Over the years, nearly 600 cheetah cubs have been born at De Wildt - a dramatic contrast to the days when the cheetah population of South Africa was estimated at a mere 700. While the cheetah project was the base from which the Centre launched its conservation ethic, it soon widened to |
 |
||
| include other rare and endangered animal species such as wild dog, brown hyaena, serval, suni antelope, blue and red duiker, bontebok, riverine rabbit and vultures - |
|
||
|
including the very rare Egyptian vulture.
Many of these have been successfully bred for later reintroduction into
the wild, thus helping to repopulate areas where such species have
disappeared or are no longer abundant. |
|||
 |
|
||
|
|
||
|
What is a king cheetah?
The King Cheetah, once thought to be a separate sub-species, is an African Cheetah exhibiting a rare fur pattern mutation. A recessive gene must be inherited from both parents in order for this "blotchy" pattern to appear. First discovered in Zimbabwe in 1926, this very rare animal has been seen in the wild only a few times. It has been known to exist in Zimbabwe, Botswana and in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province. It is now known that it is a true cheetah, this fact having been verified in 1981 with the birth at De Wildt of the first captive-born king cheetah. Since then a large number have been bred at De Wildt. |
 |
||
| Other related sites to visit |
|
||
  |
 |
||
| © Dean Polley Photography 1998-2004 - All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Website Terms & Conditions | Total Visits: 2064 |