You track a cheetah. So do we.

CCF’s field teams rescue, rehabilitate, and (in Namibia) return cheetahs to the wild. They then follow every one of them to ensure the best second chance at living a wild life.

A cheetah’s journey

What happens between the trap and the release.

One – The call comes in

A farmer traps a cheetah and calls CCF’s 24/7 hotline allowing the field team to respond rather than after lethal retaliation happens.

Two – Nose-to-tail exam

At CCF’s veterinary clinic, she gets a complete workup. The team draws blood, treats any injuries, and scores her body condition. Even the ticks are picked off and sampled. They feed research that goes well beyond this one cheetah.

Three – The lab reads her story

The vet team logs her samples and sends them two places. The first is CCF’s own genetics lab, the only fully equipped genetics lab at a conservation site in Africa. The second is the Genome Resource Bank, where her DNA becomes part of the permanent record of wild cheetahs.

Four – Kept wild on purpose

Human contact stays minimal so she never loses the instincts she needs to hunt and survive.

Five – Home, and tracked

She’s released wearing a GPS collar, often back onto the same farmland where she was trapped. The ecology team monitors her movements and behaviors: whether she’s hunting successfully, whether she’s denning with cubs, whether she’s drifting back toward farms where conflict could find her again. If she needs help, the data is what gets the team there in time.

Meet the Team

Want to Help More?

Fahlo’s generous partnership supports our work in the field, and their beautiful tracker bracelets are how you found us. We are so grateful for the opportunity to know you and would like to invite you to become more involved.

Donate

Every rescue on this page costs something: the hotline, the exam, the lab work, the collar, the follow-up. Donations keep the release work going, so the next trapped cheetah gets the same journey home.

Sponsor a cheetah

Not every cheetah can go back to the wild. Some arrive too young, too injured, or too used to people to survive on their own. These residents live out their lives at CCF’s centre, and sponsorship helps cover their care — food, veterinary attention, and the space to run. You’ll get updates on your cheetah twice a year.