Photo Credit: Nick Dale/Getty Images, Video Credit: Peace Parks Foundation

Animals Mozambique5. November 2021

Four Cheetahs Find New Home and New Hope

A reserve located in Mozambique welcomed four cheetahs for the first time in 60 years to contribute to the survival of the species, stabilize the ecosystem, and restore the landscape by introducing the carnivores onto its territory.

“Not only is the rewilding programme in Maputo Special Reserve contributing to the reserve becoming a world-class wildlife and tourism destination, but restored ecosystems such as these are also critical carbon sinks to help contribute to mitigating climate change,” says Werner Myburgh, CEO of Peace Parks.

The two male and two female cheetahs – the former coming from &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Nata and the latter, Waterval Private Game Reserve in the Northern Cape, South Africa – found a new home at the 104,000-hectare Maputo Special Reserve which has an estimated population of 15,000 animals ranging from elephants, buffalos, and giraffes to nyalas, waterbucks and warthogs. The vulnerable predator only has some 6,600 survivors in Africa – mainly in Namibia and Botswana – and “the metapopulation in this network of protected areas constitutes the only growing wild cheetah population worldwide,” says Vincent van der Merwe, project coordinator of the Cheetah Range Expansion Project. Over the last 10 years, the cheetah population has more than doubled across South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi, going from 217 in 48 protected areas in 2011 to 478 in 67 protected areas in 2021.

Source:
Daily Maverick

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