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Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor

Two cheetahs that were translocated from Canada early this year and reintroduced to the wild at Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation here in Zimbabwe are adapting well and coping with free-ranging life.

Conservancy manager Reilly Travers told African journalists recently on a tour supported by the African Wildlife Foundation that the two cheetahs –two brothers named Kumbe and Jabari, had been successfully reintroduced to the wild after spending 60 –days in a quarantine boma.

“The two young male cheetahs are adapting very well. We recently released them into the wild after spending some time in quarantine. We are happy that they have adjusted well to the environment here,” he said.

“They are now hunting on their own. When we released them, their natural instincts kicked in and they started hunting on their own. In the first few months, they killed about 40 Impala as prey but the number of prey they have attacked has gone down.

“Obviously, the other animals are not stupid, they are now aware of the presence of predators. As time goes it will increasingly become harder to find their prey.”

The two cheetahs were translocated under the ongoing Back To The Wild initiative supported by the Aspinall Foundation, Parc Safari and Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation, which aims to establish a breeding population of cheetah at the conservancy here in Zimbabwe for the purposes of contributing to the genetic diversity and to assist in repopulating other reserves in the country.

“This project is moving on very well and we are now looking forward to receiving two female cheetahs from Canada in the coming weeks,” Travers said.

“We are happy to be participating in this project. We are committed to breeding, protecting and releasing species into the wild.”

It is for the first time that Zimbabwe had received captive-bred cheetahs for rewilding.

Hopes are high that this initiative will help conserve and increase the population of key species such as cheetah and black rhino.

The Government and the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority (Zimparks) were hailed for supporting this initiative.

The country’s population of endangered cheetahs has declined by around 85 percent over the past two decades, with less than 200 big cats left, a 2016 study showed.

Zimbabwe’s cheetah population was estimated at around 1 520 in 1999.

The bulk of cheetahs left now are found in protected areas like national parks and wildlife conservancies in Matabeleland North and South as well as Masvingo province.

Wildlife experts say the decline is due partly to habitat loss, loss of prey and human persecution. The capture of cheetahs for the illegal global pet trade also posed a huge threat to the cats.

Travers said he hoped this initiative would forestall extinction and help ensure the long-term survival of cheetahs in Zimbabwe and the world.