{"id":382,"date":"2011-01-15T09:02:23","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T09:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/?p=382"},"modified":"2014-03-08T17:57:37","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T17:57:37","slug":"cheetah-park-day-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/2011\/01\/cheetah-park-day-59\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheetah Park, Day 59"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Namibia has one of the largest populations of cheetahs in all of Africa.\u00a0 Because of their population numbers they are found outside of the National Parks and come onto local farms and kill livestock.\u00a0 This upsets local farmers and they shoot cheetahs that are found on their properties.\u00a0 Some farmers have tried to prevent the killing of cheetahs and offer their services in trapping the cheetahs and allowing the cheetahs to live on their properties.\u00a0 It is not the most natural way for the cheetahs but it is better than letting the cheetahs get shot.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Generally cheetah populations are low throughout Africa and some years ago it was thought that they might become extinct.\u00a0 This did not occur to the amazement of scientist and their numbers have increased.\u00a0 However\u00a0the\u00a0cheetah population is still considered vulnerable with inbreeding being a real concern.\u00a0\u00a0The efforts of these Namibian farmers may help\u00a0sustain and even improve the genetic pool of wild cheetahs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So let us get into the fun stuff, patting one of the three cheetahs that the properties owners have in their backyard, and get\u00a0very close to these animals for outstanding photos. \u00a0We listen to them purr and enjoy their interest in us with licking and rubbing.\u00a0 Then the cats get fed and it is time to leave them alone and let them eat in peace or. . risk\u00a0get yourself a cheetah love bite!<\/p>\n

The last activity is to visit the wild cheetah that reside in one of the paddocks.\u00a0 We enter in bakkies (pickup\/ute) and get surrounded by about 20 hungry cheetahs.\u00a0 They chirp,\u00a0 squeak,\u00a0 hiss and growl at each other until they are fed.\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Some cheetah actually get very upset and fights can break out between\u00a0them. \u00a0It is a very exciting few minutes until the cheetah all get their food and run back into the cover of the vegetation and out of our view.\u00a0 There are no complaints from the guys about the afternoon.\u00a0 What else would you be doing on a Tuesday afternoon?\u00a0 Who thought you would be patting a cheetah.<\/p>\n

Tip of the Day:<\/em><\/strong> They may look and act like large domestic cats but a cheetah is not your average pet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Namibia has one of the largest populations of cheetahs in all of Africa.\u00a0 Because of their population numbers they are found outside of the National Parks and come onto local farms and kill livestock.\u00a0 This upsets local farmers and they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,79,451,47,450,15,449,448],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-14th-nov-2010-absolute-safari-on-shaggy-denis","tag-absolute-africa","tag-african-adventure","tag-bakkies","tag-cheetah-park","tag-eat-in-peace-or-risk-get-yourself-a-cheetah-love-bite","tag-namibia","tag-namibian-farmers-may-help-sustain-and-even-improve-the-genetic-pool-of-wild-cheetahs","tag-national-parks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1233,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/1233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.absoluteafrica.com\/liveblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}