Cheetahs Spotted in War-Torn Angola: Big Pic

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March 18, 2010 -- Cheetahs are swift, powerful hunters, but they were no match for the civil war in Angola that ended in 2002, but devastated the cheetah's habitat. Now, for the first time in decades, cheetahs have been spotted in the country, according to recent reports from a conservation group.

After a three day survey in the arid Iona district of Angola bordering Namibia, cheetah specialist Laurie Marker reported the sighting of the fast, spotted, leopard-like wild feline.

Male cheetahs leave their droppings on trees as territorial markings, Marker reported to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, an international research organization based in this northern Namibian town.

"We found nine different marking trees," he said. In one, he saw cheetah dung. Then "two male cheetahs ran out. It was very exciting -- there are cheetahs in Angola," he said.

The cheetah preys on deer and buck that have also returned to the 3.8 million-acre Iona wilderness area designated a nature preserve. An upcoming episode of "LIFE," airing Sunday, April 11, 8 PM e/p on the Discovery Channel, features a team of cheetahs bringing down an ostrich twice their size.

The conservation group said that Marker used a Global Positioning System to record locations where he found likely cheetah prey, including one herd of about 1,000 springbok, a southern African gazelle known for jumping and running at speed when startled.

The group said recent unconfirmed sightings of cheetahs prompted Alvaro Baptista, the Angolan owner of one of the only bush camps near Iona, where roads and infrastructure were destroyed in the war, to ask for help in developing a survival plan for Angola's once abundant cheetahs.

Content provided by: Associated Press

Photo credit: Discovery Channel/BBC Photographer: Lukasseck/ARCO/naturepl.com