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Four Cheetahs Reintroduced to Eswatini After More Than 35 Years

Two cheetahs resting together under a tree in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Conservation · Reintroductions & translocations

Four cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) have been reintroduced to Royal Jozini Private Game Reserve, returning the species to Eswatini after more than 35 years without a viable population. The two females and two males form a founder group for an intended breeding population and link Eswatini to the managed Southern African cheetah metapopulation.

Cheetahs were historically widespread in Eswatini, but habitat loss, persecution and declining prey contributed to their disappearance. Project partners report that the country’s last viable cheetah population was present during the 1980s.

Four animals were moved in two stages

Two adult females were translocated from Nyosi Wildlife Reserve in South Africa’s Eastern Cape in December 2025. After quarantine, veterinary clearance and a 30-day acclimatisation period, they were released at Royal Jozini in January 2026.

Two adult males from Dinokeng Game Reserve followed in April. They also underwent quarantine, veterinary management and acclimatisation before release. The males were fitted with tracking collars, and the four cheetahs are monitored daily using satellite and VHF tracking together with direct field observations.

The animals have settled, but breeding has not yet been documented

By the June 2026 project update, the females were hunting successfully and had settled into the reserve, while the males had ranged widely through northern and eastern areas. The males and females were using neighbouring areas, creating opportunities for future breeding.

No cheetah cubs had yet been reported from the reintroduction. The prospect of the first cubs born in Eswatini in decades is therefore a project goal rather than an achieved result.

Royal Jozini joins a managed regional network

Royal Jozini covers about 14,000 hectares within the Nsubane–Pongola Transfrontier Conservation Area. The long-term aim is to establish a self-sustaining breeding population rather than maintain four isolated animals.

The Southern African cheetah metapopulation is a managed network of separate populations in fenced or otherwise discrete reserves. Strategic translocations between reserves can be used to maintain demographic and genetic connectivity when natural movement between the areas is limited. The Eswatini reintroduction is intended to become part of that wider regional system.

Sources and image credit

  1. Global Humane Conservation Fund of Africa. (2026, June 23). Cheetahs return to Eswatini after more than 35 years.Primary project announcement on the completed reintroduction.

Image: Bernard DUPONT — two cheetahs resting together at Melkvlei in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa; representative image. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source

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