The latest victims of the illegal wildlife trade

Please meet Abdi, Hasani, and Oklahoma. These three little cheetah cubs are the latest victims of the illegal wildlife trade (IWT).

These scared, traumatised, helpless cubs were confiscated in Somaliland from the IWT by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) and handed over to CCF staff in January 2023.

The cubs required immediate medication as they were suffering from dehydration and had open wounds/lacerations on their bodies.  Our expert veterinary team worked around the clock getting these cubs back to health. After their initial health issues, and two-weeks quarantine and rehab, the cubs have started to gain weight and their general health has improved.

Sadly, Abdi, Hasani, and Oklahoma won’t be the last cubs taken from the wild this year.  It is estimated that 300 cheetah cubs are illegally trafficked from the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Somaliland) each year. Around 4 out of 6 die before they reach their final destination and most do not live beyond 2 years of age.

It’s thanks to the amazing work of our expert vets that we can give these cubs a second chance at life. But we cannot do it alone. We need your help.

Unfortunately, because these three rescued cubs have been taken from their mothers at such a young age, they lack the survival skills they’d need to be released back into the wild. At CCF we want to make sure that these cheetahs have the best lives possible.  We can do this at our new Cheetah Conservation Rescue Centre (CCRC) in Somaliland, where we have the medical expertise and space (the new centre spans 800 hectares), so these cubs can live as natural a life as possible.