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Personal statement to all canned & trophy “hunters”

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We share this picture not to show off or to encourage everybody to do the same. Leopards are no pets, neither are cheetahs, lions, tigers
etc. and in our WCW projects no one is allowed to interact with our ambassadors, to give them a natural life as possible which works. Come and see for yourself!

With this leopardgirl Felicia we have come a long way to get her in good shape and health, and to make her live a leopard-worthy life with lots of natural space and nice leopardfriends who groom her and play with her. She was almost lost to this world, but now she regained health and strength!

This is about a bond we have. Even though it is a private photo, we decided to show this picture to make a statement to all coward canned & trophy hunters, who feel so brave to pose holding a leopard or other big cat in their arms that they have just shot and killed. They feel brave to pose with a dead wild cat, big shame on them. This is posing with a leopard alive and healthy, important ambassador to her species in the wild and no, we don’t feel brave holding her like this, as you can bond with all living beings as long as you respect them. We need to rescue them.

STOP THE LOWSCUMS KILLING THEM!!!! (don’t try to do this yourself though, as it is of course all about a strong bond, not to go to a
cuddly place and pay money for interaction, as then you will also support Canned Hunting).

Canned hunting lions to Madame X Project!!!

(not the ones on this photo)

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Behind the scenes we have several projects either started by us in Wild Cats World or supported by us. We already informed you a while ago about the celeb, Madame X, that asked our help to make her dream (and the one of some lions and cheetahs) come true. She has lots of influence, land and well yes, the funds, we support her with the knowledge and suggestions how to make this project work.

Canned Hunting in South Africa is a big issue…..and even though there’s still a lot of people who believe in the fairytale to bring (captive) lions from Overseas (like Europe) to South Africa for the so-called promised release in the wild. Well sorry people, this is never going to happen! Bringing water to the sea isn’t going to help. There’s a lot of lions in South Africa waiting on the hunting lists, help them instead of bringing more lions to SA…ending up in a private project or sanctuary (1 ha is the average size you can offer in SA) in SA so you might as well keep them the same way in e.g. Europe. In South Africa you cannot release captive born lions and cheetahs without 100% certainty of the family tree or studbook. So no circus or zoo lion will ever be released.

We in our captive SA project, rescued 2 lions out of Canned Hunting before, and after all the hassles (headaches) that caused us, we decided lions are no go for our SA project, but of course we still fight for this species like for all wildcat species, big or small. So when Madame X (a celeb who doesn’t want her name revealed) offered this chance of a lifetime, we started searching for lions to start a nice Pride, for a long life in the best of circumstances with lots of space (talking to start with about 1000 HA and more). Negotiating with Canned Hunting breeders is so much easier when a celebrity is involved. She just confirmed us today 5 lions were taken from the Canned Hunting List and offered to the Madame X project: 2 male lions (brothers) and 3 females (sisters). No need to mention that this project will be ethical in every way, so no BREEDING involved! It is a start…..

As for cheetahs we aim for (hopefully) our own off spring to give the same future to as these lions. As for the problems mentioned above, the lions will not be kept in SA but in a European country with the right climate and equal space. We hope if this project seems to turn out 100% to the satisfaction of Madame X we can mention to her starting with a similar project for snowleopards.

So much more opportunities when there’s enough funds. Celebs usually are not very interested to help out projects for endangered cats but when they ask our help to be part of a project this huge, it is a big compliment. You will understand we have to be very discrete about this project so sadly we are not able to give you all inside info, but just to share with you the best news that at least another 5 lions are safe, ready for a wonderful future!

Sunny – cheetah ambassador

Sunny is a young male cheetah who arrived at Wild Cats World in the summer of 2014 as one of our ambassadors for his species.

Sunny - ambassador cheetah

Like the other two cheetah ambassadors at the Spotted Cats Conservation Project, Speedy & Spiky, Sunny is also semi-wild, or motherraised. The Wild Cats World cheetahs will live in huge camps far from the other WCW projects, to give the cheetahs a relaxed and stress-free life, far from the tourist-zone.

Born: Steitlerville(SA), October 2013

Caracal video

Surf to a wonderful docu about caracal mom Tetha and her 3 adorable kittens, filmed on foot in the Addo, in South Africa. Tetha was released there and successfully raised this litter of kittens. Sadly she did die. Watch and enjoy – and get convinced that caracals should be in the wild, to survive and be left in peace by humans (farmers, rangers….)

Up-date Javan Leopard Release Program (May 2014)

Although the situation where Dimas and Sawal are living in right now isn’t ideal, they are both fine. They are active, hunting and eating well. The caretaker at the sanctuary is giving them live prey once a week. On other days they get their food in different ways to give them enrichment: meat hanging on a rope, or hidden in a carton box that is hanging in their enclosure. Unfortunately we still haven’t found a suitable release site for them. It really is a difficult situation as there are not so many suitable areas left and the better areas are already occupied by other leopards. Besides, there’s so many human-leopard conflict.

At this moment we are still focusing on the Ciremai National Park. One male leopard has been spotted there, but more research needs to be done in the middle of this National park. Although we are very happy with the help and cooperation with the National Park, the research isn’t going as fast as we hoped for. We are depending on their officers and they are also the ones who place the camera-traps to see if there are more leopards around.

If it appears so there’s just one male around in this area, the question still would be if it is wise to release our two males there as well, as they no doubt will start searching for females and if they are not around in this National park they will probably start looking outside. If they leave the area we can start all over again as there will be conflicts with humans again. There’s just too little space for wildlife and leopards left on Java and not much better elsewhere in the world.

An other option is Cikapu area. The Forest Department talked to us about this area as it seems there are no leopards around here but they are interested to get some there. But before this can happen lots of work needs to be done, to have this area better managed as a lot of people are entering this area. Also the usual habitat assessment needs to be done first, so before we actually know for sure it is suitable, many months will pass… and still many more funds are needed.

Just for you to know, we continue to work hard on this and hopefully next time there will be better news about the release of our two leopard friends Sawal and Dimas. Keep them in your prayers and if you have anything to spend, please fund and support the leopards with the help they so desperately need. See the info on the Wild Cats World website.

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