With just over 4100 cheetahs surviving in South Africa, nearly three-quarters live outside protected areas on farmland. Since 2005, the Cheetah Outreach Trust has been placing livestock guardian dogs on livestock and game farms in the northern parts of Limpopo and North West provinces of South Africa (within the known free-roaming cheetah distribution range). These dogs act as guardians to livestock and deterrents to predators including cheetah, leopard, brown hyena, caracal and other predators and provide a cost effective, non-lethal predation management method for farmers.
Livestock guardian dogs are placed in clusters to create safe areas for these cheetahs to hunt — and together with other conservation efforts, to facilitate cross-border migration