May 10, 2013 (8:32 A.M.)
Great news! The cheetah story I wrote a couple weeks ago –
the first story I wrote for Africa Media – went international yesterday morning
and was picked up by ABC news. Hein and Kim Schoeman’s story about the rescued
cheetahs has been spread all over the world!
For the story, Africa Media handled the entire media coverage.
I was sent out to interview the Schoemans and a Wildlife & Adventure Film
Making intern made a short video. As a package, we sold the story and two days
ago, it was picked up by ABC News, Yahoo News and a number of other smaller
outlets.
Unfortunately for myself and the intern, we sell any rights
to our work the moment we sign a contract with Africa Media, but it’s still
very cool to see something you worked on and know personally go viral. I wish I
could have my name on the story, but for now, I’m just happy to know I wrote
something that became “famous” overnight. At least I can add it to my C.V.!
Here are a couple of the links to the places where the story
was picked up:
Here is my original story:
A year ago, a cheetah living at the Garden Route Game Lodge outside
Albertinia in the Western Cape of South Africa gave birth to four cubs.
With cheetah mortality rates highest during the first 16
weeks of a cub’s life and the risk of predation, infection and starvation
constantly looming on the horizon, a mother cheetah is generally only able to
provide protection and the necessary resources for half of her litter.
Deciding to not turn their heads away from the likely deaths
of two of these cheetah new-borns and understanding the potential risks,
Managing Game Ranger Hein Schoeman and his wife Kim, chose to rescue two of the
cubs from likely peril.
What they did not expect was the relationship that would
form between these two cats and their family.
“We decided to take two to raise and let the cheetah raise
two; just to raise the chance of survival,” Kim Schoeman said. “When we took
the cheetah cubs away, they were only about two weeks old. The only people they
were exposed to in the beginning were my husband Hein and myself.”
In an attempt to
raise the cats themselves, Hein and Kim brought the two-week-old cubs into
their home. The main concern would be the safety of all those involved,
especially Hein and Kim’s then 2-year-old Malan and 3-month-old Kayla. The
process would not be easy and there would be no guarantee of the cubs survival,
but the Schoeman’s had to give it their all.
At home the
responsibilities for Kim never seem to end. Between maintaining a safe
environment for her children, if she wasn’t feeding Malan or Kayla, she was
feeding the male cub, Wakuu or the female cub Skyla.
“I would be warming
milk for babies and warming milk for cheetahs; I just kept feeding everyone,”
Kim said. “When I was working, I would have them all in the office with me
during the day and at night I would get up every two hours and feed them.”
Because the cheetahs did not have a mother, Kim had to be
the one they relied on. Along with her own children, Kim fed the cheetahs,
bathed them and did whatever was necessary to make sure they were taken care
of. There were even nights the entire Schoeman family – cheetahs included –
slept in the same bed.
“They wanted to be close to us. They didn’t have a mother,”
Kim said. “They would call me at night and I would eventually go sleep with
them or just bring them to the bed. They were so much a part of our family that
I would end up having all the cats and kids with me in the bed.”
Kim explained how her children saw the cheetahs as any other
children would see an animal in the house.
“They saw them as normal with nothing strange about them,”
she said. “They weren’t very big at that point – about the size of normal cats
– and there was no difference in the way they treated the dog or the cheetahs.
The kids cuddled them like big teddy bears. Waku the boy, he likes to cuddle.”
As Wakuu and Skyla continued to grow, the Schoeman children
were taught a number of procedures to follow when interacting with the
cheetahs. Kim and Hein did not want to take any unnecessary risks with their
children and teaching them just a few simple rules would make all the
difference.
“The kids were taught they were not allowed to run anywhere
near the cats,” she said. “When they walked, they had to face them. They were
not allowed to turn their backs on them.”
When the cheetahs were about four months old, they were
moved from the house to an enclosure built in the garden. Kim said with the
cheetahs getting bigger, she felt more comfortable with them living in a
confined area outside.
“We still kept taking the kids to them, but we would never
leave them alone together,” she said. “The cheetahs are wild animals and their
instincts are there and the kids realized they can’t just go into the enclosure
to play with them.”
Jokingly she mentioned how her children, despite being much
smaller than the cheetahs now, acted dominant toward the cats.
“Our kids are small but they think they are dominant. If the
cats jump or pounce, then they just push them down and say ‘No, don’t do that,’
like other children might do to a dog.”
Kim thinks it has to do with confidence. If the children are
not scared of them, then the cheetahs think they must be stronger than them.
She said with cheetahs, they know their strength lies in their speed, not
power. They won’t take the chance and fight something unless they know they can
win.
With Wakuu and Skyla being a year old now, Malan and Kayla
do not get as much time with the cheetahs as they used to. Despite the
relationship between the cats and the children, the Schoeman’s still wouldn’t
feel comfortable letting them interact without taking special precautions.
“What we do is have them interact with the kids on very hot
days when they’re not active and don’t feel like playing,” she said. “When we
are training them to hunt or playing with them with balls, we don’t have the
kids with us for that. That way they don’t associate the kids with play time,
running or feeding. The only times the kids interact is after they’ve been
hunting so they’re relaxed and full.”
Kim explained how there’s always going to be a level of
stress when dealing with wild animals. Even after taking all the necessary
precautions, Kim still worries about the safety of her children on the reserve.
As the cheetahs continue to grow, the Schoeman’s know they
will have to eventually release Wakuu and Skyla back onto the reserve. As much
as neither Hein nor Kim wish to alienate these wild animals, consideration for
the cheetahs and their natural environment is of top priority and because their
children Malan and Kayla have essentially grown up with these cats, it will be
a very emotional day.
“It’s a lot of work in the beginning but it’s worth it,” she
said.
Hein and Kim have done an incredible job at assuring these
cheetahs survival. Although they enjoyed the spoils of having two young
cheetahs be a part of their family, above all they have given Wakuu and Skyla a
chance they would have otherwise lost. Regardless of where Wakuu and Skyla end
up on the reserve, there will always be a place for them with the Schoeman
family and in the end, they will always be a Schoeman.
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