Cheetah Conservation Fund Celebrates Third Annual International Cheetah Day, 4 December, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Liz Georges, Communications Coordinator, liz@cheetah.org
Dr. Laurie Marker, Founder and Executive Director, cheetah@iway.na (+264) (0)67 306225

Cheetah Conservation Fund Celebrates Third Annual International Cheetah Day, 4 December, 2013

28 NOVEMBER 2013 (Alexandria, VA) – 4 December 2013 marks the third annual International Cheetah Day. Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) and its Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Laurie Marker, call on the international community to celebrate the cheetah on this day, reflect on the importance of this iconic species, and act to support efforts to secure the cheetah’s future.

In honour of International Cheetah Day, CCF will feature a video address filmed in Namibia from Dr. Laurie Marker on “The State of the Cheetah”. This year CCF will be focusing on extending its reach by increasing education opportunities for CCF and their zoological partners. CCF will be supplying infographics, content for social media, and education materials to zoological institutions around the world in efforts to educate people about CCF’s work in the field.

CCF encourages individuals to use its social media tools and hashtags (#SavetheCheetah, #IntlCheetahDay) to spread the word about the plight of the cheetah. These can be downloaded at CCF’s website, cheetah.org. CCF will also bring back the popular Virtual Cheetah Party on its Facebook page, asking visitors to the page to post their memories, thoughts, pictures and other cheetah-related content to celebrate the world’s fastest land animal on its special day.

“The message of International Cheetah Day is that the cheetah needs our help, and everyone can help, right now, right where they are,” says Dr. Marker. “A lot of people think that they can’t do anything to save the cheetah because they can’t go to Africa, or they don’t have a lot of money. Awareness is a critical component of conservation. We can’t win the race for survival if no one knows the cheetah is vulnerable to extinction.”

The cheetah is not only the fastest, but the oldest of all the big cats. Having survived over three million years through an Ice Age and a genetic bottleneck, its numbers have now been decimated by 90 percent in the last 100 years. With only 10,000 animals remaining in the wild, the cheetah population faces more threats than ever before, all of them originating with humans.

Since its inception, CCF has been working to provide solutions to save cheetahs by helping the people who live alongside them. CCF introduced Namibian livestock farmers to non-lethal predator control methods in the form of livestock guarding dogs – specially bred and trained Anatolian shepherds and Kangal dogs whose presence among the livestock can reduce predation rates by 80 to 100 percent. CCF has also helped establish similar guarding dog programmes in four other countries. CCF works tirelessly with a network of individuals and organizations to combat the illegal pet trade, and combats habitat loss by selectively harvesting the thickened thornbush that chokes the cheetah’s rangeland, and using the resulting biomass material to create an award-winning fuel log called Bushblok.
D
onations to support CCF’s work are always accepted at www.cheetah.org.

Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is the global leader in research and conservation of cheetahs. It is a non-profit trust headquartered in Namibia, and a USA 501c3 with offices in Alexandria, Virginia.. CCF is dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild. CCF believes that understanding the cheetah’s biology, ecology, and interactions with people is essential to conserve the cheetah in the wild. The strategy is a three-pronged process of research, conservation and education, beginning with long-term studies to understand and monitor the factors affecting the cheetah’s survival. Results are used to develop conservation policies and programs. CCF works with local, national and international communities to raise awareness, communicate, and educate. CCF maintains active affiliate organizations in the United Kingdom and Canada, has fundraising chapters across the United States, and partners with organizations in many other countries.