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PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICHOLE SOBECKI
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By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences
Nichole Sobecki, under pandemic lockdown in Kenya for much of 2020, began following rescue missions of smuggled cheetahs in Somaliland from afar. Soon after the airspace reopened, she received word that Somaliland authorities were negotiating for the release of another cheetah local herders had captured. She boarded the next flight to Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland.
Nichole’s lived in Kenya, a nation known for its expansive beauty and abundance of wildlife, for a decade. There, cheetahs are pushed to the brink of extinction, and she wanted to understand why.
"I was waiting at the agreed-upon location along a dry riverbed when I heard a Land Cruiser’s roar," recalls Nichole, an American photographer and Nat Geo Explorer. “As I walked to the vehicle, I was expecting to find a crated animal, or a younger cub preferred by traffickers. Instead, I found this seven-month-old cheetah, later named Astur, sitting upright in the back seat (pictured above). The ridge of fur down his back stood up, his amber eyes darted around, and his breathing was fast and labored. A rescuer reached out a hand to him, and the cheetah hissed defensively. Asma Bileh, a veterinarian on the rescue team, told me it was the fiercest and most terrified cheetah she had ever seen."
Astur now lives at a Cheetah Conservation Fund safehouse in Hargeysa, where he has bonded with four other young, trafficked cheetahs. Tackling trafficking is a huge challenge, Nichole points out. “Somaliland is an unrecognized nation with one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. But their commitment to fighting wildlife crime and the forward strides being made are inspiring."
For most of a year, Nichole has worked with Nat Geo’s Rachael Bale reporting on cheetah trafficking through Somaliland and to countries in the Persian Gulf, where the cats are prized as accessories for wealthy buyers abroad. Now the breakaway African state is fighting back. Photos from their reporting follow.
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