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Lucky, The Three Legged Cheetah Is Luckier Than Many Big Game Animals
Being Lame for life means Lucky will not be shot by a desperate farmer or big game hunter
Lucky, a sleek and graceful three legged Cheetah, lives in Namibia on an animal sanctuary. She still loves to chase and capture a rag tied and dragged across a line as “prey.” She most likely lost her leg chasing a Jeep or Land Rover when she was still a cub. No one seems to know for sure. She was described as “Lucky to live” when taken to a veterinarian for the amputation.
The wild population of Cheetahs, native to desert and lowland scrub all over Africa, are estimated to have still numbered over 100,000 in 1900. Today, their numbers are reported to be close to 7,000, or maybe even fewer. Lucky is just one species among many, who once dominated the vast continent, and are now dwindling in numbers even as public demand to view them — through ecotourism — is on the increase.
When we discuss how many billions of human beings our planet can support, it is easy to assume we will always preserve a scrap of wild habitat here and there so those billions of people can thrive within a biodiversity that creates a biosphere and share in the healing beauty only wildness can offer. The sixth extinction, it seems, is too alarming to distract us from the latest mass shooting. But both are stories…