Our Mission

The Action for Cheetahs in Kenya (ACK) mis­sion is to pro­mote the con­ser­va­tion of chee­tahs through research, aware­ness and com­mu­nity par­tic­i­pa­tion in Kenya. ACK works closely with local wildlife author­i­ties and land hold­ers to develop poli­cies and pro­grammes which sup­port wildlife con­ser­va­tion and human liveli­hoods for the long-term devel­op­ment of sus­tain­able human and wildlife zones. The project receives tech­ni­cal and finan­cial sup­port from the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) and works in affil­i­a­tion with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). ACK links with other large car­ni­vore pro­grammes through Carnivores, Livelihoods and Landscapes (CaLL), a Kenya non-profit organization.

The objec­tives

The chee­tah (Acinonyx juba­tus) is clas­si­fied as Vulnerable (IUCN 2008). Current study results show that Kenya holds 1200 – 1400 chee­tahs with over 75% resid­ing on land out­side pro­tected areas. Cheetahs have been extir­pated from 25% of their his­toric Kenyan range in the last 20 years (KWS 2010). The goal of this project is to pro­mote chee­tah pop­u­la­tion sus­tain­abil­ity in Kenya through coex­is­tence with people.

The objec­tives are:

1. Identify fac­tors affect­ing chee­tah live­stock pre­da­tion and mit­i­gate conflict;
2. Understand chee­tah habi­tat and prey selections;
3. Influence pub­lic and admin­is­tra­tive changes to pos­i­tively affect chee­tah conservation-management protocol.

The project focuses on two regions (Salama and Samburu) which are iden­ti­fied as a high pri­or­ity in the National Cheetah and Wild Dog Strategic Plan and fol­lows meth­ods rec­om­mended by the Global Cheetah Master Plan.

The Work

Current research includes con­flict eval­u­a­tion, GPS-collars, habi­tat sur­vey, and fae­cal analy­sis. Results iden­tify fac­tors influ­enc­ing chee­tah habi­tat selec­tion and issues affect­ing live­stock pre­da­tion. This infor­ma­tion assists in prob­lem animal-control mea­sures to pre­vent the killing of chee­tahs and pro­motes eco­log­i­cal aware­ness through com­mu­nity edu­ca­tion and school pro­grammes. ACK com­mu­nity devel­op­ment projects sup­port sus­tain­able activ­i­ties to alle­vi­ate poverty that empower par­tic­i­pants to be lead­ers in the com­mu­nity and encour­age pos­i­tive con­ser­va­tion attitudes.