Cheetah Park Namibia shows tame, wild cats
The bush farm has a large fenced enclosure where wild cheetahs can live out there lives instead of being killed by other farmers for preying on livestock.
Cheetahs are staring down the maw at something they can’t outrun: extinction,
The graceful predators, world’s fastest land animals, are losing their habitat as quickly as they are losing cubs to collectors.
Young cheetahs, when habituated from an early age, can become docile human companions. Obviously controversial, most wildlife lovers would blanche at the thought of this except in the most dire circumstance.
Cheetah Park Namibia, a popular overland travel camping stop, shows both sides of cheetahs. The park’s homestead keeps domesticated adults, rescued as orphaned cubs, around the house where they live with Jack Russell dogs they could have for dinner if so inclined.
The bulk of the remote farm is fenced bush where it helps wild cheetahs live out their lives. The cats are collected from surrounding farms, which would otherwise kill them for preying on livestock.
In Namibia, private land owners also own the wildlife that lives there. There is no state control of wildlife on private land, as we have here in the United States.
No point in judging how another country chooses to operate. While cheetahs can be easily killed on private land in Namibia, they can also be easily saved — as long as you have the budget to buy goats to feed them.
As chunks of meat are tossed over the fence, a dozen cheetahs quarrel for their share. They snarl at human watchers, slam their front paws on the ground as a threat, grab some meat and disappear into the bush.
It’s a sad way for wild cheetahs to live, but it beats dying.