Some farmers kill cheetahs because they attack and feed on cattle, sheep and goats. So Laurie Marker started working with local farming communities to find ways to protect their livestock from the big cats.

In nineteen ninety-four, she proposed that Namibian farmers use Anatolian Shepherds to protect their cattle and other animals. Ms. Marker now raises and trains the guard dogs, which put themselves between the livestock and any attacker.

LAURIE MARKER: “This breed has been used for about five thousand years to protect livestock from predators. And they act as a guardian by avoidance – they bark loudly, they tell a predator that they’re there protecting the flock, and the flock will come around the dog and by the dog barking – the predator doesn’t want to get hurt – and they will then avoid those flocks where the dogs are.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: Over the past fifteen years, CCF has bred and given more than four hundred dogs to Namibian farmers. They have reported up to an eighty percent decrease in livestock losses. At the same time, many farmers have grown to accept having cheetahs around.

LAURIE MARKER: “Since our time in Namibia the population of cheetahs there was about a thousand to fifteen hundred individuals. Today it’s probably thirty five hundred, maybe four thousand cheetahs. So we’ve been able to really grow the population. And that’s out of a world population of about ten thousand.”