At 30,000 hectares, LoleLunga is the first privately owned reserve in Zambia to reintroduce cheetahs. Suhail Dudhia, the managing director of LoleLunga, noted that ‘With the support of the local community and the Zambia Department of National Parks and Wildlife, LoleLunga has experienced four years of environmental, social, and economic upliftment’. Former snarers of wildlife are now employed as rangers, medical aid is supplied to five local clinics, fertilizer is distributed seasonally, 50 boreholes have been sunk for access to water, and two secondary schools have been constructed in surrounding communities.

Substantial investment in LoleLunga has culminated in a world-class safari experience. A five-star lodge on the banks of the Lunga River affords excellent birdwatching, boat cruises, and a fisherman’s paradise. Crystal clear waters allow visitors to spot tiger fish, crocodilians, pike, and the yellow bellies of bream swimming below while Narina Trogons, fish eagles, and kingfishers wing their way above. A newly built aerodrome eases accessibility, and roads constructed provide safari enthusiasts passage through north-western Zambia’s tranquil Miombo woodlands and dambos.

‘By offering safe space for wildlife to thrive, LoleLunga represents an ecological accomplishment’’, comments Dr Kelsey Brown, a scientist for The Metapopulation Initiative (TMI), who studied the landscape to establish its feasibility for cheetah reintroduction. Some historically occurring animals returned naturally, including elephants, spotted hyenas, and honey badgers. Others were reintroduced, including buffalo, sitatunga, Lichtenstein hartebeest, eland, puku, roan, sable, zebra, wildebeest, Defassa waterbuck, reedbuck, giraffe, and the diminutive blue duiker. Vincent van der Merwe, Director of TMI, said, ‘It is now time for the big cats to return, to regulate prey numbers and maintain ecological balance. We are privileged to play a small role in this Zambian initiative’.

According to historical records, cheetahs once roamed all ten provinces of Zambia before being extirpated from most of the country during the colonial period. Less than 100 cheetahs persist in two remnant populations. The reintroduction of cheetahs has been attempted in Zambia before but with limited success due to the absence of boundary fences. Worldwide, cheetahs have yet to be successfully reintroduced into unfenced reserves. As the first fenced Zambian protected area large enough to support this wide-ranging species, LoleLunga hopes to reverse the peril of Africa’s most endangered cat and become a source population for further reintroductions.

Cheetah reintroductions into small, fenced reserves in South Africa began in 1966. Although most initial reintroductions failed, hard lessons were learned, and in 1992, Phinda Private Game Reserve coordinated the first successful wild cheetah reintroduction. The managed metapopulation currently comprises 538 wild cheetahs on 70 private and state-owned, fenced reserves on land previously utilised for agriculture.

Dereck Milburn, the Managing Director  of WeWild Africa, provides logistical support for 40 cheetah relocations that need to be coordinated between metapopulation reserves each year. These relocations are required to prevent inbreeding, overpopulation, or local extinction on each fenced reserve and for reintroduction efforts to expand their range.  Dereck commented that ‘We Wild Africa sincerely hopes LoleLunga will do in Zambia what Phinda did for cheetah conservation in South Africa, providing that spark of success to initiate population growth.’