On December 28th of last year, the Born Free team at the Ensessa Kotteh Ethiopian Wildlife Rescue Center received a request from the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority to take in a young rescued cheetah.
Estimated to be between six and seven months old, the cheetah was confiscated from wildlife traffickers over 1000km away in the Ethiopian city of Keberi Dehar. This was the second urgent rescue of a cheetah in only two weeks. The first was the arrival of a sub-adult cheetah at the rescue center under very similar circumstances.
“There are just 7,000 wild cheetah left across Africa. Persecution and habitat fragmentation are huge challenges. But the illegal trade in live cheetah cubs, mainly into the Middle East as exotic ‘pets,’ is a brutal drain on a species on the edge,” Will Travers, President and Co-founder of Born Free told WAN. “Rescuing individuals saves each one from suffering and cruelty. However, stopping the trade, securing habitat and natural prey species, and mitigating persecution are key to improving the prospects for these amazing animals.”
Due to the distance of where the cheetah was found, and the fact that the journey would take Born Free staff through several regional governments, permission from the authorities had to be granted before the rescue mission could take place. Therefore, it was not until nearly a month later at the end of January 2022 that Born Free staff began the six-day round trip journey to rescue the young male cheetah. He was being housed in a police station since being confiscated, and spent some time tied on a short tether before members of the Born Free staff arrived to take him to his new home.
