Ann Van Dyk DeWildt Cheetah Centre

Today was a fun day.  We went to Ann Van Dyk DeWildt Cheetah Centre.  It is sanctuary for endangered animals, or animals who have been hurt.  They have 14 ambassador cheetahs who will live at the centre forever.  They have about 80 other cheetahs that are there for breeding and to be reintroduced to the wild.  If you don't know what an ambassador cheetahs are, they are cheetahs that have got hurt, abandoned by their mothers and have been raised by humans. So they cannot be returned to the wild.  The ambassador cheetahs are there to also help educate people on  cheetahs and what we can do to help save them. Did you know there is something called a King Cheetah?  No, not the ones with a crown!   A king cheetah has a mutated gene. So that means that their spots are close together, and have big stripes on their backs. A gene determines what colour your hair, eyes or skin colour is.  It's the same with a cheetah. If the parents have the mutated gene their offspring has a 50% of being a king cheetah.  There are only 80 king cheetahs in the wild. They will not put their king cheetahs back into the wild because if they do poachers will try to shoot them for their special fur. 
Now gets on with the tour.
First, we walked down beside the cages and saw some of the ambassador cheetahs.  Then, we went into this box and waited for cheetahs to run. They brought out the first cheetah to run. She was 16 years old she really didn't want to run. So then after, they brought out another cheetah who actually ran a little bit, but not at full speed.  Then, we got a surprise, a 3 year old cheetah came out and did her first run with people watching her. She did amazing.  Look at her go.

After that, we went and sat down in the reception to have a cheetah come up and sit on a table in front of us. She was a king cheetah who was 2 years old and her name was Jules.  Check out the video below. Can you hear her purr?  We learned about what makes the cheetah unique, like her brake pad, her tail, her spots and tear lines.  Then we watched a short video about what the centre has accomplished. 

Finally, the good stuff. We went on a drive and saw so many animals.  We saw cheetahs, serval, caracal, wild dogs, honey badger, meerkats, hyenas, and impala.  After we saw all of the hyenas and all of the other animals we went into wild dog area. It was so cool. We actually got "hunted" by wild dogs. First you could hear them chirp and then they started running around the truck in circles and after that if you were an animal you the wild dogs would start eating you alive! We learned all about the wild dogs.  That there is only 5,000 left in the whole world.  To you, that might sound like a lot but actually it is only just a few.  

We learned about all the animals that live at the centre.  Tomorrow we are going into town and to one of my favourite spots, Monte Casino.  

Chat with you soon! Enjoy these pictures.