New male cheetah now roams greater part of Rietvlei Nature Reserve

Thaba, who originally hails from the Shambalala reserve in Limpopo, was relocated to Rietvlei about two weeks ago where he was released into the reserve on Tuesday morning.

The same procedure was followed as to when a cheetah is relocated, where the male will, for the first week, go into a boma. Thereafter, he will be released into the reserve.

During his time in the Eastern Cape, he sired cubs with two females before the decision was made to relocate him to Rietvlei to join sub-adult cheetah Njozi for breeding purposes.

Njozi was first introduced at Rietvlei in August 2020.

He was lured out of the Boma by him following a carcass that was placed on the back of a bakkie.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and Tshwane metro introduced the new male cheetah to the reserve as part of the EWT’s cheetah metapopulation project.

According to Mayor Randall Williams, the project is aimed at maintaining the genetic and demographic integrity of cheetahs on 61 selected fenced reserves in the country.

“It also focused to increase the resident range of these free-roaming predators across southern Africa,” he said.

[WATCH] New male cheetah introduced to Rietvlei Nature Reserve @CityTshwane pic.twitter.com/043Sp2Ttqp

— Mayor Cilliers Brink (@tshwane_mayor) September 7, 2021

Currently, the EWT project, supported by a host of partners and stakeholders, manages 421 cheetahs across the country.

As part of the metapopulation project, EWT decided to keep Njozi at Rietvlei permanently, while rotating males as and when required to lessen the impact of these predators on prey in the reserve.

Newborn cubs will be relocated to other nature reserves as they reach adulthood.

Thaba is collared and will be monitored closely by the reserve’s conservation officials.

“We hope to welcome new cheetah cubs to the cheetah metapopulation project soon,” said Williams.