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Vincent van der Merwe, champion of the cheetah, died March 16, aged 42.
For a species built for speed, cheetahs have run out of room. In their native Africa, they are marooned on islands of fragmented habitat, hemmed in by fences, farmland and highways. It was Vincent van der Merwe’s unlikely task to help them find their way back to each other. Part biologist, part matchmaker, he devoted his career to keeping the bloodlines of the world’s fastest land animal flowing.
As the founder of South Africa’s Cheetah Metapopulation Initiative, Van der Merwe spent a decade tracking the lineage of more than 400 cheetahs scattered across dozens of reserves. He became adept at the peculiar art of swapping cats — darting, crating and ferrying them by helicopter or truck to new homes where unfamiliar mates awaited. It was unglamorous, often dangerous work. But it was necessary. Without his interventions, inbreeding and genetic collapse loomed.
Unlike many conservationists, Van der Merwe believed in fences. The ideal of free-ranging wildlife, he argued, was no longer viable in much of Africa. Fencing created safe space — limiting conflict with humans and keeping poachers out. Yet it came at a cost: Animals had to be managed like livestock. Few accepted this reality as pragmatically as he did.
His methods worked. Thanks in part to Van der Merwe’s efforts, South Africa became the only country where wild cheetah numbers were rising. That record caught the attention of India, which invited him to advise on the ambitious but fraught Project Cheetah — an attempt to restore the animal to the subcontinent after seven decades of absence. Ever forthright, Van der Merwe clashed with Indian bureaucrats over secrecy and missteps. Still, he insisted the project would endure, likening its early stumbles to those South Africa had overcome.
At the time of his death, he was helping Saudi Arabia attempt the same feat. Few knew better than he that saving cheetahs demanded courage, persistence and compromise. Van der Merwe had all three.
Banner image: a self-portrait by Vincent Van der Merwe
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