Rare photos of African cheetahs in snowstorm

[FfFfFfFF 58,062]

For two days, Kirsten Frost had tracked the radio-collared female cheetah through the stony hills of Rogge Cloof Nature Reserve, the coldest place in South Africa.

His resulting photographs, taken in August of a female nicknamed Mona by conservationists and two males, are likely the second-known records of African cheetahs in snow, says Vincent van der Merwe, who manages cheetah reintroduction for the South Africa-based nonprofit Endangered Wildlife Trust.

Van der Merwe’s team took what he believes was the first photo in snow in 2014 in Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve.

Both instances show cheetahs reintroduced to private game reserves in parts of their native range. Those reintroductions are key to a conservation strategy designed to protect the dwindling species while giving tourists a chance to see them. With about 7,000 total left in the wild, the cheetah is considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

“We tend to put them into categories,” such as assuming cheetahs are unique to the East African savanna, says van der Merwe, whose translocation efforts are funded in part by the National Geographic Society. He says the new pictures show “these animals are a lot more adaptable than you think.”

In fact, before colonists wiped out 95 percent of the cheetah’s population by the 1960s, the cats roamed much of the continent, from 10,000-foot-elevation mountain ranges to coastal forests to deserts (such as the Kalahari) where temperatures fall below freezing at night.

Source: National Geographic

[GagaSine 7,464]

Such beautiful animals 

[littlepotter 76,610]

11 minutes ago, FfFfFfFF said:

colonists wiped out 95 percent of the cheetah’s population by the 1960s

 

[TasteLikeWhiskey 1,561]

There are really alot of conservation efforts here in my country for cheetahs and wild dogs! It's great to see the stories are reaching international audiences

[TasteLikeWhiskey 1,561]

1 minute ago, littlepotter said:

 

I know right. I live the "golden free state" region of SA. The cheetah is like our emblem here..... But we don't have a single one left in the wild anymore

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

Snow leopards are shookeTh 

[Galactic Mess 1,393]

Amazing pictures! Didn’t imagine they would look this good covered in snow.

[TimBotha25 0]

21 minutes ago, TasteLikeWhiskey said:

I know right. I live the "golden free state" region of SA. The cheetah is like our emblem here..... But we don't have a single one left in the wild anymore

Hey fellow South African monster, I was born in the Free State