Cheetah Canada

10/02/2026

It's Cheetah Fact Friday!

Did you know cheetahs can roam across enormous areas in search of food, water, and safe places to raise their cubs? In their home ranges, cheetahs typically cover about 3 to 5 kilometers on an average day, though they can travel much further. Connected habitat helps them move freely—but it’s just as important that people and cheetahs can share these landscapes safely. Supporting local communities, reducing conflict with livestock, and protecting wildlife corridors can help create a future where both people and cheetahs thrive. 🐆🌿

10/01/2026

Taylor Travis shares her internship experience at CCF.

CCF sparked a new passion in me for ecology and conservation science. Leaving Namibia, I now carry a strong ambition to continue learning more about ecology in the future. If I ever decide to return to school later in life, pursuing a master’s degree in ecology is something I would seriously consider — and that inspiration comes directly from my time at CCF.

More than anything, I am leaving CCF with a far deeper appreciation for conservation in every form: wildlife conservation, land conservation, water conservation, and sustainable food production. This experience has changed the way I think about the relationship between humans, animals, and the environment. I feel as though I am leaving this project not only with new knowledge and technical skills, but also with a better mindset and stronger sense of responsibility toward conservation efforts. I hope to carry these lessons home with me to Canada, where it can sometimes be easy to forget just how important conservation truly is.

Taylor Travis’s internship in Namibia expanded her hands-on experience with exotic and large animals.

09/29/2026

🐾 Conservation Learning at CCF and in School!

Last week, CCF welcomed learners of all ages for an exciting day of conservation education. 24 SRC members and three teachers from Otjiwarongo Secondary School came to CCF and learned about CCF’s conservation work and participated in hands-on activities at the Model Farm.

We also welcomed preschoolers for their first cheetah experience. They enjoyed seeing cheetahs up close, visiting the goats, and meeting our Anatolian livestock guardian dogs. 🐆

Meanwhile, the Education Department concluded a successful outreach programme in Okakarara and surrounding villages, inspiring learners to appreciate cheetahs, predators, and Namibia’s ecosystems.

Thank you to all the schools, teachers, and learners for your enthusiasm and continued support! 🇳🇦🌍

09/25/2026

It's Friday Cheetah - Fun Fact!

Cheetahs are built for speed, but the landscape around them plays an important role in allowing them to use it.

In parts of Namibia, bush encroachment has transformed areas of open savanna into increasingly dense, thorny habitat. Thick bush can make it more difficult for cheetahs to hunt at high speeds, while sharp thorns can also cause injuries as they move through these areas - often getting their eyes impaled.

The effects extend beyond cheetahs. Bush encroachment reduces available grassland and can affect grazing wildlife, livestock and the productivity of the rangelands local communities depend on.

CCF works to restore these landscapes by selectively thinning encroaching bush, helping create healthier habitat for wildlife while improving rangeland productivity.

Protecting cheetahs also means protecting the landscapes they depend on.

09/21/2026

What happens to cheetahs when the savanna burns? New research from Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) sheds light on how wildfires impact the savanna mammal community, and the implications for conservation.

In October 2021, a wildfire swept through approximately 650 square kilometers of savanna in Namibia’s Omaheke region – and burned right through the middle of a CCF camera trap study. What began as a carnivore study became a rare natural experiment to document almost in real time how an entire savanna mammal community responds when its habitat goes up in smoke.

The results have now been published in international journal Oecologia - and are striking! The study found that in the five months following the fire, savanna mammals progressively abandoned the landscape, both fire-affected areas and the surrounding habitat. In short, the fire drove a landscape-scale decline of savanna wildlife, impacting smaller and less mobile species the hardest, but also grazers like oryx and eland as their forage disappeared.

So, what does this matter for cheetahs? Evolved to live on open grasslands, cheetahs are savanna specialists. They also range widely and depend on vast, connected habitat to find prey and avoid competitors, but also to find refuge when conditions deteriorate, for instance during droughts, disease outbreaks, or after a wildfire.

This research is especially timely as climate and land use change affect wildfire patterns globally. Wildfires are projected to become more frequent and more severe, and if fires strike large areas repeatedly with little recovery time, they steadily erode the habitat quality that wildlife relies on. The conservation implications are clear and consistent with everything Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is working toward – protecting large, well-connected landscapes that give wildlife room to roam and recover.

🔗Read more: cheetah.org/ccf-blog/research/when-the-savanna-burns-where-do-cheetahs-go/

09/18/2026

It's Friday Cheetah - Fun Fact!
🐆
That incredible tail is more than a beautiful feature. As a cheetah races at speeds of up to 100 km/h, its long, muscular tail works like a rudder, helping it balance, steer and make the sharp turns needed to catch prey.

Every part of a cheetah is perfectly adapted to life on Africa’s drylands. But adaptations can’t protect a species from habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and the loss of its prey.

That’s why conserving cheetahs means protecting the landscapes and communities they share — keeping drylands healthy and creating ways for people and wildlife to thrive together.

Save the cheetah. Save the drylands. 🌍🐆

09/17/2026

These high level get together are so important to keep moving forward.

09/16/2026

Faces of the Cheetah Rescue and Conservation Centre (CRCC) in Somaliland! Since 2023, the CRCC has been the primary intake point for cheetahs rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and cases of human-wildlife conflict. Today, the CRCC provides individualized care to cheetahs of all ages – and a wide range of medical needs.

This year marks ten years in Somaliland. In 2016, the government decided that confiscated cheetahs would stay in Somaliland – and Cheetah Conservation Fund's (CCF) team stepped in to care for them. We started with temporary safe houses in Hargeisa – and in 2023, the CRCC was completed, the first facility of its kind in the Horn of Africa.

Want to support our efforts to rescue and rehabilitate trafficked cheetahs? go to https://cheetah.org/canada/donate/.

📷= captured by staff

09/15/2026

Due to their vocal structure, cheetahs can't roar like other big cats. But, the cats still use a wide variety of vocalizations to communicate! They growl and hiss when facing danger, and communicate with barks, chirps and churrs. Cheetahs can also purr, just like a house cat!

Do you have a house cat with the personality of a big cat? Submit your photos to the House Cheetah Photo Contest sponsored by meowbox! Winners receive a 6-month subscription from meowbox, a FAHLO cheetah tracking bracelet, and a mini-feature in Cheetah Conservation Fund's 2027 calendar (plus your own copy). Every single vote supports cheetah conservation! 🐾

🔗https://www.gogophotocontest.com/meowbox

09/14/2026

Meet Rocket – our Cheetah of Month! Rocket was rescued in 2019, after being orphaned as a result of human-wildlife conflict. He was only a few weeks old when he arrived at Cheetah Conservation Fund's (CCF) Centre in Namibia for care and rehabilitation, and could not be returned to the wild.

As a young cat, Rocket was introduced to another orphaned cheetah named Hans. Just a few months apart in age, the two cats formed an extremely close bond, and we often observed together (and staff observed, the two would even cry when separated for feedings or medical care). In the wild, male cheetah siblings often stick together for life, remaining in groups called coalitions. For cheetahs, these sibling coalitions offer strength in numbers, providing extra protection from threats and boosting hunting success. Rocket and Hans lived together for more than four years, until Hans passed away suddenly in 2025.

The loss of Hans had a big impact on Rocket. The team in Namibia tried to find a new companion for Rocket, and gradually introduced him to some of the other resident male cheetahs. However, there was no connection - until Rocket met Aurora. A senior female cheetah (now nearly 14-years-old), Aurora lost her best friend Rainbow just a few weeks before Hans passed away. After being introduced to Rocket, the two cats have formed a very special bond. Now, Rocket and Aurora live together in a large enclosure with two other females, and the cats are often observed together.

Want to sponsor Rocket? https://cheetah.org/canada/sponsor-a-cheetah/