Animal Diaries Archive

Cheetah Week - a great success!

1 August 2008

If you’ve been reading our previous Big Cat Animal Diaries you may have heard of ‘Cheetah Week’ that took place earlier this month. We are pleased to report that it was an overwhelming success and through many wonderful events and activities we were able to help raise a stack of money for cheetah conservation. Cheetah Week ran in the first week of school holidays, from June 30 to the July 6 however we extended the fun a frivolity for a couple of special extra activities.

First off the bat was a Trivia Night on June 6, which helped us raise nearly $3000. A few weeks later we took two of our cheetahs to the Birch Carroll and Coyle Cinemas at Maroochydore for a special charity screening of Kung Fu Panda. Foxtrot and Sheeba had so much fun showing off that they lay down in one of the cinemas and wanted to stay and watch the film. Sadly we had to take them back to the Zoo, but not before Foxy made friends with a life-sized plush cheetah toy that we were auctioning off on the day. Thanks to the wonderful people at BCC Maroochydore, Adam from Totally Wild who hosted the event and all the volunteers that helped us on the day; we were able to raise another stash of cash for cheetahs in the wild!

With those two successful events under our belts, we were very excited when Cheetah Week rolled around on June 30. We held a cheetah conservation evening at the University of the Sunshine Coast where special guest speaker Annie Beckhelling (founder and director of Cheetah Outreach in South Africa) discussed the great need to help this big cat in the wild.

Every day in the Zoo we auctioned one-off cheetah paw paintings and sold unique cheetah merchandise. There were lots of fun cheetah activities for the kids and of course we were showing off our gorgeous cats as much as we could. Visitors were wowed by daily cheetah presentations where they learned lots about cheetahs and witnessed first hand how much our cats love to show off!

A great time was had by all, and by the end of the week we had raised $30,000 to send to Cheetah Outreach and De Wildts Cheetah and Wildlife Trust in South Africa. This money will be used to help this vulnerable species where they need it most.

Thanks must go to all of those who helped us make Cheetah Week so special, and of course a big thank you to Echo, Foxtrot, Sheeba and Cleopatra for being such great ambassadors for cheetah conservation at Australia Zoo.