Rewilding alone won’t save Africa’s big cats

By Carlota Pano

A pair of captive-born cheetahs are in a 60-day quarantine ahead of their reintroduction into a wild reserve in Zimbabwe. But is this all we can do?

Sunrise in Kigali, Rwanda. Credit: Maxime Niyomwungeri

The reintroduction of big cats back into the African plains is only a small triumph in the race to beat extinction.

Since the first reintroduction projects in the continent, the long-term objectives of rewilding have been shrinking. The facts indicate that captive-bred predators like these cheetahs, will only have a 33% chance of survival after being released into their natural habitat. Their lack of fear towards hunters and undeveloped natural instincts make them vulnerable to all fatalities.

The Red List produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature has identified all three of the African big cat species as vulnerable to extinction. There are only 6,700 cheetahs left in the world, and the number is falling.

Habitat loss and land degradation, as well as, viruses and inbred depression are always taken into account before any reintroduction attempt. After all, re-establishing animal species successfully back into their original habitat depends on multiple variables

Water colour painting of leopard. Credit: Pixabay

But if self-sustaining populations are to be reached in the first place, why is that only a portion of conservation funds are actually spent on the protection of wildlife? With private investment adding up to US$10 billion (£7,2 billion) annually, why aren’t we providing physical protection and more monitoring tools to support park rangers and onsite area management

Restoration projects can only do so much in the face of human-animal conflict. A limited number of felines being reintroduced won’t be able to curb decades of decline caused by Man.

Although the reintroduction of species is ecologically valuable, such strategy is a lengthy solution to a critical issue. As a society, we can work to mitigate the loss of animal species, but we must do so by tackling the root of the problem first.