Rainbow, Then and Now

Rainbow is one of Cheetah Conservation Fund’s most popular resident cheetahs, especially with Canadians.  Here’s a timeline of her life and an update.

2013: The early days for Rainbow

When Rainbow arrived at CCF Namibia in February 2013, she needed intense medical care and attention. A farmer had called CCF about a very young cheetah cub found by the side of the road in very weak condition. The CCF team quickly retrieved her from the farmer and took her back to CCF to begin carefully nursing her back to health. Just arriving back at CCF centre, three rainbows appeared in the sky, and there was no doubt about the name of this new cub!

Something else was missing for Rainbow – regular contact with another young cheetah. Fortunately, just around the same time, another cub named Aurora arrived at CCF, and the two cheetah cubs immediately took to each other and quickly became inseparable.

2014: Expert at chasing the lure

Rainbow was reported as being very active, and enjoyed running after the lure as part of the regular cheetah runs at CCF. In fact, her speed and enthusiasm made her one of CCF’s best runners at the time. Rainbow and Aurora continued to bond and spend time together,

2015 Visit with Rainbow

By 2015, Rainbow had grown into a beautiful adult, filling out from her younger gangly self. Her golden colouring had become more pronounced and she had become very healthy and powerful cheetah. She loved climbing up trees, and was a playful cheetah, but she had also shown herself to be quite adventurous and continued to be a very good runner.

Rainbow and Aurora continued to be fast friends: they ate together, groomed each other, and regularly curled up together together in the sun, enjoying a gentle breeze or some shade.

At two and a half years old, Rainbow was at an age where she would normally have been away from her own mother for more than 5 months. As a result, she increasingly became independent, always looking for new challenges.

Fast forward to 2022

Rainbow and Aurora continue to be the best of friends, and are now a couple of the older resident cheetahs at CCF. They’ve matured into beautiful, mature and independent cheetahs. While housed together with several other cheetahs, Rainbow and Aurora are often together in an area away from the others.

They continue to run after the feeding truck, however, they are no longer the fastest cheetahs at CCF. They’ve become part of the senior citizens club at CCF, and as such, their health is being monitored closely for some issues that afflict older cheetahs.  Rainbow continues to be a favourite of visitors to CCF.

You can still support Rainbow in her later years…donate here.

Cheetah Sponsorship @ CCF

Sponsors of Rainbow, and any other cheetah, receive timely updates about their cheetah of choice. You, too, can be part of the exclusive updates by helping to care for one of these beautiful resident cheetahs.