When American scientist Dr Laurie Marker launched the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in 1990, she had no idea where this new adventure would take her. A zoologist from California, she learned about threats to a declining wild population while conducting in situ research in Africa in the late 1970s and through the 1980s. Dr Marker routinely travelled to Namibia and other cheetah-range countries from her positions with Wildlife Safari and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo to study the habits of the world’s fastest feline. But it’s what she learned about human behaviour that shocked her. Habitat loss, loss of prey, and conflict with livestock and game farmers put cheetahs on the fast track to extinction. Livestock and game farmers were shooting, trapping and removing hundreds of cheetahs each year – more because of perceived threats than actual predation. She realised if no one would soon intervene, the cheetah might be lost forever.

Throwing caution to the wind and selling her worldly possessions, Dr Marker formed CCF in 1990, the same year Namibia earned its independence from South Africa, and relocated to Otjiwarongo, a rural town in north-central Namibia which translates to “the place where the fat cattle live” or “the beautiful place”. There, Dr Marker set up CCF’s first base in a borrowed farmhouse and travelled around the country interviewing farmers about cheetahs and their farming systems. With consistent growth over three decades, CCF has become an internationally recognised research, education and conservation institution under Dr Marker’s leadership. The cheetah population of Namibia has stabilised and CCF is now the longest running and most successful cheetah programme in the world. Within a couple years, CCF’s research base moved onto their own farm, which over the years has become a network of neighbouring properties of a 58,067-ha private wildlife reserve and model farm managed by CCF. Today, the CCF Centre, with its modern facilities set against the breath-taking backdrop of the Waterberg Plateau, is open to the public 364 days a year from 09:00 to 17:00. 

“We started running at cheetah speed 30 years ago, and we haven’t looked back since,” says Dr Marker. “Our research has been pioneering from understanding the overall health of wild cheetahs, the home range needs through radio/satellite collar monitoring, and mapping population structures through our genetics research.”

CCF’s 50-person team of conservationists, educators, scientists and veterinarians conduct research studies and work with local farming communities to encourage coexistence. The team develops non-lethal predator control tools and livestock farming training protocols at the Otjiwarongo Centre and deploys them throughout Namibia and in other cheetah-range states. 

One of CCF’s most popular contributions to cheetah conservation is its Livestock Guarding Dog programme. For the past 28 years, specially trained Turkish Anatolian shepherds and Kangal dogs are bred at CCF and reared with small stock like goats and sheep from birth. The bonding of these species is important, because the dogs will want to serve as bodyguards for herds while grazing on open farmlands. The dogs’ presence and exceptionally loud bark are usually enough to keep cheetahs and most other predators at bay, thus reducing pressure on farmers to take lethal action. CCF livestock guarding dogs are credited with sparing the lives of hundreds of cheetahs and other predators on the savanna. Although over 700 of these dogs have been bred and placed with rural farmers, there is a two-year waiting list for those seeking a trained dog. 

Day visitors and overnight guests can request a tour during the centre’s trading hours without booking in advance. The tour includes an opportunity to meet the CCF livestock guarding dogs and the animals on CCF’s model farm, as well as a stop at the Dancing Goat Creamery to sample cheeses, fudge and ice cream made with milk from CCF’s Saanen dairy goats. The model farm is a self-supporting research and testing facility with commercial agriculture enterprises that doubles as a training facility for local Namibian farmers. CCF’s artisan cheeses are sold at CCF’s café and in retail markets in Namibia to demonstrate how goat farmers can earn more income. 

CCF’s mission is to keep cheetahs living free and wild, and with this, CCF releases cheetahs back into the wild whenever possible. Over the past 33 years, CCF has released more than 700 cheetahs that were caught in farmers’ traps or otherwise taken from the landscape. However, many cheetahs coming to CCF will never live in the wild, as they have been orphaned or injured and are unable to hunt or survive on their own. All CCF tours include a visit to the CCF cheetah sanctuary, a series of wide-open natural enclosures where almost 40 of these iconic cats reside. Most were brought to CCF at a young age for veterinary care and management in cooperation with the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT). They serve as ambassadors of their species to remind visitors that fewer than 7,100 of their cousins remain in the wild.