Born To Explore Season 2 Episode 6 Saving the Wild Cheetah

Saving the Wild Cheetah is the sixth episode of season two of the educational travel show Born To Explore. The show takes host and adventurer Richard Wiese to the heart of Namibia, where he meets with conservationists and veterinarians who are working tirelessly to save the dwindling population of cheetahs, Africa's most endangered large cats.

Wiese begins his journey by traveling deep into the grasslands of Namibia to meet with Dr. Laurie Marker, the founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). The CCF is an international non-profit organization dedicated to conserving cheetahs and their ecosystems.

At the CCF, Wiese learns about the ongoing efforts to reduce human-cheetah conflict as a major step towards saving the cheetahs. Dr. Marker explains how cheetahs are targeted by farmers who see them as threats to their livelihoods. Farmers will set traps, poison or shoot cheetahs that prey on their livestock, and so the CCF has been stepping in with various measures to prevent such conflicts such as putting up fences and providing farmers with dogs to scare off the big cats.

Wiese then joins a team of researchers as they track a wild cheetah in the Namibian wilderness. Here, he learns about the cutting-edge conservation techniques used to keep cheetahs safe in this harsh environment. Wearing a radio collar, the cheetah under observation provides the researchers with valuable data on their movements, hunting behaviors, and territorial patterns of these elusive creatures.

The next stop on Wiese’s journey is the Africat Foundation, an organisation that saves cheetahs, leopards and lions from unexpected harm. The non-profit rehabilitates the big cats and returns them to the wild. In the series, Wiese meets with Marlice van Vuuren, co-author and producer of the award-winning conservation film 'The Unlikely Leopard'. She explains the significant role tourism offers as a way of bringing revenue to the local communities as well as facilitating the continued well-being of the cheetah population.

The journey comes full circle as Wiese returns to the CCF, where the focus has shifted to the future of cheetahs and how research can help to conserve them ahead of time. The conservationists here work with the genetics of cheetahs who have been kept in captivity, to understand more about them at a fundamental level. As a result, they are able to develop medical treatments and recovery programs that will help ensure the survival of cheetahs in the wild.

Saving the Wild Cheetah is an informative and visually stunning episode of Born To Explore. Wiese's journey provides viewers with a comprehensive and inside look at the efforts being made to save the wild cheetah from extinction, while highlighting the crucial role that these big cats play in the ecosystems of Namibia. Viewers will leave this episode with a renewed appreciation for the beauty and fragility of these majestic predators, and an awareness of the important work being done by conservationists across Africa to save them from disappearing.