Cheetahs are back in Zambia’s Greater Luangwa Ecosystem, nearly 30 years after the big cats’ last recorded presence in the massive landscape.
Six cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), three males and three females, were earlier in July moved by Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) and several conservation groups, including the South Africa-based Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), to a remote part of North Luangwa National Park.
The cheetahs were translocated from private reserves in South Africa. Another six will be moved in August, while a third batch of six will follow in August 2027, according to a statement by EWT.
There haven’t been confirmed sightings of cheetahs in the Greater Luangwa Ecosystem since 1998, according to EWT’s fact sheet, which attributes the cat’s disappearance to successive outbreaks of anthrax disease and habitat disturbance.
“Many of the threats that likely contributed to the disappearance of cheetahs from Luangwa in the 1990s have been significantly reduced,” Olivia Sievert, manager for EWT’s Cheetah Metapopulation Project, told Mongabay by email.
