The Cheetah Conservation Project Zimbabwe

Help us find the cheetahs of Zimbabwe

Recently Dr. Esther van der Meer and her husband Hans Dullemont have founded the Cheetah Conservation Project Zimbabwe (CCPZ). The first goal of CCPZ is to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of the cheetah population in Zimbabwe.

Although the cheetahs in Zimbabwe form an important part of the largest cheetah population in Southern Africa, not much is known about their occurrence and the conservation challenges they face.

Especially from the northwest of Zimbabwe, an area encompassing most of Zimbabwe's wildlife protected areas, and the Zimbabwe component of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, little information is available. This is unfortunate as the more you know about a species the easier it generally becomes to implement an effective conservation strategy.

Which is why the coming year Cheetah Conservation Project Zimbabwe will carry out an interviews based field assessment in the northwest of Zimbabwe. CCPZ has also set up a National ID data base in which they collect cheetah sightings and pictures from all over the country. Each cheetah has a unique set of spots, pictures therefore help to identify individuals and give reliable population estimates.

You can help CCPZ to find the cheetahs of Zimbabwe by sending them your (old) cheetah sightings and pictures. Let them know when and where you saw cheetah, how many cheetahs you saw and whether or not they had cubs.

Please send your pictures and sightings to cheetah@cheetahzimbabwe.org or visit their website at cheetahzimbabwe.org. A special thanks to Brent Stapelkamp, Daffwell Marumahoko and Marleen Post for allowing us to use their beautiful pictures.