When I was young, my favorite activity at CCF was watching the cheetahs run during their morning exercise and paddling the bike in the museum. The bike tested how fast you could paddle compared to the speed of the cheetah. All the kids would race to the museum to have a turn on the bike. The cheetah is the fastest land animal, so no one reached anywhere close to the speed of a cheetah. In fact, a cheetah’s top speed is 120 kilometers per hour (74 mph)! Their speed and agility, among many other traits, make cheetahs very special. My colleagues, Jessica and Brian, will share more cheetah facts with you later on in this journey.
When I was 13 years old, I wanted to help the cheetahs I visited during my childhood. Today, I am doing just that! I work as an educator teaching young people (like you) about cheetahs, their importance in wildlife and nature, and how we can prevent cheetahs from becoming extinct.
The Cheetah Conservation Fund is an international organization that promotes research, education and conservation efforts to save the cheetah from extinction. Although CCF works in many other countries, my home country of Namibia is the home base. CCF’s location is excellent because my colleagues and I can conduct research in the cheetahs' natural habitats, the savannah, and provide direct solutions to some of the problems that they face on a daily basis. Can you guess what the biggest threat is to cheetahs today? If you guessed humans, you are 100% correct! With the human population getting bigger and bigger, cheetahs have to share their habitat with humans and their livestock, such as sheep and goats.
Sometimes, humans and farmers are not equipped to take care of their livestock.
