BY SHAME MAKOSHORI “We are delighted to announce that we have teamed up with the inspirational teams at Imire: Rhino & Wildlife Conservancy, @Parc Safari Hemmingford and @Ethiopian Airlines to rewild Kumbe and Jabari, two cheetahs born in Canada,” read an announcement on the website of the UK-based Aspinall Foundation recently. “Kumbe and Jabari flew on Saturday from Toronto to Addis Ababa on special crates on board of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and another shorter connection to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. There they met with our team and Imire's and driven to their new home at Imire Rhino & Wildlife Conservancy. The two boys will first spend 60 days in a quarantine boma to allow them to acclimatise to their new life under the African sun and practice chasing a lure to prepare for their first hunt. After the quarantine, they will move into Imire’s 4 500-hectare reserve, where they will encounter wild game and start hunting for themselves. Within a few short months we expect this handsome duo to be living completely wild and free,” said the foundation which is run by Damian Aspinall, an English businessman and conservationist. The mere thought of two sweet young cheetahs traversing the world to the African jungle simply is quite intriguing. The routine is normally that translocations originate in Africa. But here, there was a role reversal, which is rare in Zimbabwe and so NewsDay (ND) business editor, Shame Makoshori sought to understand why. He speaks to Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation’s conservancy manager, Reilly Travers (RT) to understand how this exciting development happened and why Canada chose Zimbabwe for the rewilding operation. In Zimbabwe, we are used to exporting animals, so it’s exciting that animals came from the West to Zimbabwe. How did this happen? Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation, and our partner The Aspinall Foundation UK, strongly believe animals belong in the wild, in their natural habitat and not in captivity. The Aspinall Foundation are leading conservation specialists who have rewilded hundreds of animals back to Africa, including cheetahs, black rhino and western lowland gorillas. They are on the forefront of rewilding captive animals in areas of protected wilderness and identified Imire as the ideal partner for this latest project. Imire is thrilled and proud to be part of a new era of conservation rewilding animals back to their original habitats. Tell us more about Kumbe and Jabari. Where they born in Canada? Kumbe and Jabari were born at Parc Safari in Hemmingford, Quebec, Canada, where they were bred in captivity in Canada. The translocation to Zimbabwe interests us. What factors were considered to bring the cheetahs here, and not to other countries? Zimbabwe’s cheetah numbers are in decline. The Cheetah Conservation Project Zimbabwe reports that cheetahs in Zimbabwe have lost 61% of their historic range and that there are as few as 170 individuals left in the country which mainly occur in wildlife protected areas. Zimbabwe is a country well known for