RIETVLEI Nature Reserve is celebrating the release of a new cheetah named Njozi – meaning “dreams” in Swahili.The 18-month-old cheetah arrived at the reserve in Pretoria on Thursday morning after a 14-hour journey from the Western Cape.
Vincent van der Merwe of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) said Njozi was doing well as she settled into her new surroundings on the highveld.
The City of Tshwane which owns the 400ha Rietvlei, approved the relocation of the vulnerable species by the Wildlife Trust to the nature reserve, along with a donation of 250 blesbok, springbok, red hartebeest, black wildebeest and zebra.
The new cheetah’s roots can be traced back to a female captured near Askam in the Kalahari in 2003 and a male which escaped from Mountain Zebra National Park in 2014 but was later recaptured close to Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape.
Njozi will be joined temporarily by two 18-month-old males from Welgevonden Game Reserve in Limpopo, hopefully in the next two weeks.
The brothers come will take a six-month break at Rietvlei before leaving for other reserves in Mozambique in February. Njozi will remain at Rietvlei.
Van der Merwe said the two males, with origins in Botswana, would provide precious genes unrelated to other cheetahs in the metapopulation. “It’s hoped this will be the beginning of several generations of genetically unrelated cheetahs, which can be propagated on Rietvlei for distribution to other reserves across the country,” he said. Three cheetah raised successfully at Rietvlei are now at Dinokeng.
The Rietvlei reserve is open to the public from 7am to 5pm in level 2 of lockdown for self-drive game viewing. However, there is a limit on the number of cars allowed in at any given time, so go early to avoid disappointment. The Rietvlei Coffee Shop is open and the guided hikes have been reintroduced. No alcohol and no picnics. Entry is R64 for adults, and R37 for pensioners and children. 012 358 1810