A veterinarian administering eye drops during the immobilization of a cheetah.
Cheetah are very fragile cats. During an immobilization their health is the number one priority. As an immobilized cheetah cannot blink its eyes, an eye ointment is applied to lubricate the eyes.
The eyes will be covered to protect them from dirt, reduce the risk of the eyes drying out and keep the cheetah calm.
To protect the animals, reserves in South Africa are fenced, meaning that animals like cheetahs are no longer able to move between remaining protected areas. To avoid inbreeding and grow a healthy and strong population of wild cheetahs it is necessary to relocate these amazing big cats. This cheetah will be translocated from a reserve in South Africa to a reserve in Mozambique.
Photo taken in 2022 in the Karoo, South Africa in collaboration with The Endangered Wildlife Trust who, in 2012, successfully launched the cheetah range expansion project to increase cheetah numbers.
