The cheetah, South Africa’s second-most threatened carnivore, has returned to the country’s Free State province for the first time in 100 years with the reintroduction of two male cheetahs at the privately owned Laohu Valley Reserve assisted by the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
The Free State is the only province in South Africa that has not had wild cheetahs since their elimination during the colonial period.
The world’s fastest land animals, cheetahs are classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and it is estimated that there are less than 1 000 of the predators left in South Africa.
Let’s hope they thrive.