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| Cheetah Challenge Participants |
This blog will be a way for our education team to share some of the amazing moments we have, both at the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre, and all over the country as we travel with our ambassador animals.
Background about CHEETA...
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| Jedi the Anatolian Guard dog ambassador |
The Ann
van Dyk Cheetah Centre (formerly De Wildt) has run an Education Outreach Programme
since 2003 under the auspices of the De Wildt Cheetah Trust. The objective has
been to visit disadvantaged communities with an Ambassador Cheetah and to
educate children and young adults about the need to take care of Animals and
the Environment. The Programme consists
of various talks at different levels, supported by PowerPoint presentations,
experiential learning exercises, and several learning aids in the form of
posters and work sheets. There is a workbook for teachers, which encourages
them to use the lessons learned as the basis of other learning in the school
curriculum - and also results in a more optimistic outlook amongst the
teachers. To date over 50 000 children
have benefited from the programme.
Learners
have experienced this learning at the Cheetah Centre and also at their schools.
Byron, the Ambassador Cheetah has also been used as an enabler for creating
awareness amongst corporates for funding of the Education Programme and for
needy schools who urgently require computers and other resources.
Last
year it was decided to form a specific Education Trust (CHEETA) and to look at
making the Programmes and learning outcomes more sustainable for children in
disadvantaged communities.
The idea
is to use the Cheetah as a symbol of survival and sustainability and to teach
young people about overcoming challenges and being catalysts in their
communities for the preservation of natural resources and the improvement of
their own lives.
Background about Ann van Dyk...
2011
The Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre
celebrates its 40th anniversary
The Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre
The
Centre was established in South Africa in 1971, in the past known as
the De Wildt Cheetah Centre it has recently been changed to The Ann van
Dyk Cheetah Centre as a tribute to the woman who has devoted her life to
the survival of the cheetah species.
Mission
To ensure the long term survival of the Cheetah, African Wild Dog and other wild animals in general.
Aims
- To breed rare and endangered species (which includes the cheetah and African wild dog).
- To support scientific investigations into all aspects of these species.
- To
promote public awareness - particularly amongst the younger generation -
of the pressing need for wildlife preservation: to afford visitors to
the Centre of the opportunity of viewing endangered species such as the
cheetah and African wild dog, in natural surroundings and at close
quarters.
- To continue to play a role in conservation biology by helping to maintain adequate gene pools of rare and endangered species.
- To generate income to support existing and future breeding projects at the Centre.
- Where feasible, to re-establish endangered wildlife species into areas where they once occurred naturally.
Today
the Centre can look back with satisfaction on a job well done in
ensuring the survival of Acinonyx jubatus - the cheetah, successfully
breeding the king cheetah in captivity for the first time in the world.
While the cheetah breeding project was the base from which Ann launched
her conservation ethic, it soon widened to include other endangered
animal species, such as the African wild dog, brown hyaena, servals,
suni antelope, and riverine rabbits. Many of these projects such as the
suni antelope and riverine rabbits once successfully running have been
handed over to other institutions to continue with.
The Centre
does not receive any government funding and income generated from tours
and the adoption programme is used to subsidise our conservation
projects.
Learn more about the breeding project and the
conservation projects at the Centre - order a copy of the book 'Cheetahs
of De Wildt' written by Founder and Director Ann van Dyk
The Centre does not receive any government funding and income generated from tours and the adoption programme is used to subsidise our conservation projects.
Learn more about the breeding project and the conservation projects at the Centre - order a copy of the book 'Cheetahs of De Wildt' written by Founder and Director Ann van Dyk
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| Byron the ambassador cheetah visiting a school in Ga-Rankuwa |
www.cheeta.org.za
I look forward to keeping you up to date about some of the latest visits we have had, and exciting news as time goes by.
Rita Groenewald
email education@dewildt.co.za
Tel: +27 12 504 9906
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