Vanishing Cheetahs

In the last 50 years, cheetahs have become extinct in 16 countries.

Their are now estimated to be fewer than 12,000 in Africa and Iran, with the predatory cat facing a bleak future in the wild.

Namibia has the world’s largest cheetah population, most of them roaming privately owned grazing lands where ranchers kill them as unwanted predators.

Conservationists there are desperately try to reverse the cheetah’s decline and are making some progress.

By providing ranchers with special guard dogs to protect their livestock, they are showing how humans and cheetahs can co-exist.

Working with the Cheetah Conservationist Fund, Assignment Earth talks to ranchers and wildlife officials and learns how this innovative approach is saving one population of this vanishing species.

Watch Part Two here:

This episode first aired from 28 April 2007.