Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia.<\/p>\n
Despite being severely undernourished and limping from months of being tied up, they are now in a stable condition.<\/p>\n
The cubs are being cared for by the Cheetah Conservation Fund.<\/p>\n
Its founder, Laurie Marker, said a 5-month-old cub -month-old was “very malnourished, with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the skin”.<\/p>\n
She said recovery was a delicate process requiring them to “start them onto on food slowly due to re-feeding syndrome, similar to people in starvation”.<\/p>\n
Two people who were in possession of the cubs were arrested during an operation in the northern Sallahley District in mid-August.<\/p>\n
Environment Ministry Director, Abdinasir Hussein Said, told journalists that the cheetah cubs have joined a group of 109 others rescued in similar operations.<\/p>\n
Somaliland is a major transit hub for the illegal wildlife trade. Hundreds of cheetahs and leopards from the Horn of Africa have been transported to Gulf countries through the Gulf of Aden.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage the people of Somaliland to protect wildlife in their natural habitats, as their best interests lie there,\u201d said Hussein.<\/p>\n
Possession of wildlife is illegal in Somaliland, and police often crack down on suspected traders.<\/p>\n
“These animals are currently suffering due to being separated from their mothers, which may lead to the mothers experiencing stress and potentially dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conservationists in the Horn of Africa have expressed concern over the rise in demand for exotic pets in Gulf countries.<\/p>\n
This demand fuels the illegal trade, severely impacting the delicate ecosystems of nations across the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-118355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}