Tragedy of cheetah released into wild by Carrie’s charity
A CHEETAH which was hand-reared in the UK by Carrie Johnson’s zoo charity has been killed after being reintroduced to the wild.
Saba was born in captivity at a Kent wildlife reserve and raised from a cub by Victoria Aspinall and her husband Damian, who runs the foundation which employs the Prime Minister’s wife as its director of communications.
The big cat and his brother were the first zoo-born cheetahs from Britain to be ‘rewilded’ when they were released on a reserve in South Africa.
But after nearly two years living in the wild, Saba has been found dead. He is believed to have been killed when an antelope he was hunting fought back and pierced his heart with its horn.
A monitoring team discovered the animal on a hill in the game reserve near Cape Town after his tracking collar stopped updating.
The tragedy comes after the Aspinall Foundation was embroiled in a row earlier this year over plans to reintroduce 13 of its elephants to the wild in Kenya, with wildlife chiefs there claiming they had not been consulted.
An Aspinall Foundation spokesman said yesterday: ‘Saba’s body was quickly discovered, and it was immediately apparent that he had sustained a chest wound. He was airlifted from the mountain top.
‘His death was quick – he died within minutes of the stab wound. We will never forget Saba who, along with his brother, was a pioneer for the species – the first captive-born cheetahs to ever be successfully rewilded from the UK.’
Saba was born at Port Lympne Safari Park, then raised by Mr Aspinall and his wife at their mansion at Howletts Wildlife Park near Canterbury.
Mrs Aspinall documented the cheetahs’ progress on her Instagram page, and in 2019 Saba was introduced to Boris Johnson on a visit to the park, with a video of the encounter showing the cheetah nibbling at a nervous-looking Mr Johnson’s beanie hat.
In February last year the brothers were flown out to the Great Karoo reserve, where Saba will be buried and Nairo will continue to live. The Ashia Foundation, which looked after the cheetahs for a month before their release, said: ‘We were sorry to hear of the passing of this male cheetah.
‘Unfortunately, this is the sad reality of cheetahs in the wild, and hunting accidents aren’t uncommon.’
The Aspinall Foundation, which runs Port Lympne and Howletts, is committed to reintroducing more animals into the wild.
In what might be its most ambitious plan, it aims to release 13 elephants in Kenya.
However, as the Daily Mail reported in July, the £1million plan sparked an international row, with Kenya’s ministry of tourism and wildlife saying neither it nor the country’s wildlife chiefs had been consulted. It expressed ‘concern’ over the project, saying: ‘Relocation and rehabilitation of an animal from a zoo is not easy and is an expensive affair.’
A spokesman for the Aspinall Foundation insisted it had been in contact with the Kenya Wildlife Service at a high level for months.
But some conservation experts questioned the value of sending the animals out to a country which has seen its elephant population double to 34,000 since 1989.
Conservationist Adam Hart, who presents science programmes on BBC Radio 4, rubbished the project as ‘ego conservation’ and a ‘waste of resources’.
The foundation is under investigation by the Charity Commission over concerns it paid £150,158 in fees to Mrs Aspinall for interior design services the same year it took more than £1,500,000 in donations from the public and corporate
‘Hunting accidents not uncommon’
donors. The payments were made before Mrs Johnson joined the charity.
A Charity Commission spokesman said: ‘Our inquiry into The Aspinall Foundation remains ongoing. We are unable to comment on active inquiries.
‘We intend to publish inquiry reports setting out our findings once they have concluded. We are unable to comment on timings.’