Last Tuesday I went on a school excursion to the Cheetah Conservation Fund about 3 hours drive north of Windhoek. We stayed in a campsite for two nights. The tents that we stayed in were only just big enough to hold six kids!
When we got there on the first day everyone thought we would die from the heat inside the bus. We met 'Gibs', who was our tour guide.
This photo is one that I took of Chewbaaka who is the ambassador of the Chee
tah Conservation Fund. The Cheetah is the fastest land mammal and can reach speeds of over 100km/hour. Their stride is 8metres long and that is how they can accelerate faster than a Ferrari. The way that you can Cheetah from a Leopard is that they have tear marks that run down their nose and to the outer areas of their mouth. They are pitch black tear marks, just like their spots, so you can see the difference from a long way off. These marks somehow helps them to see better in bright light. Cheetah's have semi-retractable claws, meaning that they cannot bring their claws completely into their paws. The Cheetah has a small light-weight body construction and long legs and a long heavy tail which helps them to balance.
tah Conservation Fund. The Cheetah is the fastest land mammal and can reach speeds of over 100km/hour. Their stride is 8metres long and that is how they can accelerate faster than a Ferrari. The way that you can Cheetah from a Leopard is that they have tear marks that run down their nose and to the outer areas of their mouth. They are pitch black tear marks, just like their spots, so you can see the difference from a long way off. These marks somehow helps them to see better in bright light. Cheetah's have semi-retractable claws, meaning that they cannot bring their claws completely into their paws. The Cheetah has a small light-weight body construction and long legs and a long heavy tail which helps them to balance. The best bit about the whole thing was getting to pat a Cheetah. The Cheetah was sitting on a chair and we went around and patted it! We also got to see Harry, Hermione and Ron (who are other Cheetahs) chase a bit of cloth on a string around at VERY high speed.
At night we got to sit around a campfire and drink hot chocolate, roast marsh-mallows and make up poems and sing songs. The first night was very hot and we hardly got any sleep. On the second night it rained and we hardly got any sleep again. In the mornings we did a morning jog.
One morning a zebra snake/spitting cobra got into the goats and chickens pen. The anatolian shepherds (the dogs in the picture) went and protected the goats by attacking the snake. They killed the snake but when the came back, one of them had both eyes very swollen and the other just had one very swollen eye from the snake's poison. Now they can barely see.
We also got to go to the musuem that had lots of intersesting facts about Cheetahs and other big cats.
I am making good friends at school and mostly it's good fun.
