Calum O’Flaherty, originally from Reading, completed the gruelling 58km challenge over the weekend not only completing not a very poignant personal challenge in memory of his Father Michael, but also exceeding a goal to raise £500 for the Cheetah Conservation Fund, where Calum works, heading up the amazing Livestock Guarding Dog (LGD) Team in Namibia.  

Crossing the finish line, he said “I’ve done it, it was easy! But Cheetahs don’t have it easy in the wild. Not just in Namibia but in Somaliland… too, hopefully this makes a small difference to cheetah conservation…” 

One of the vital projects to be funded by Calum’s efforts is the recently launched  Snake Aversion Training Program for its Livestock Guarding Dogs (LGDs), a vital project which supports its mission to protect cheetah populations.

CCF’s LGD programme has been successfully run by CCF for 30 years and is one of the most successful conservation projects to assist farmers with predator conflict in Namibia and other countries in Africa.

These incredible Anatolian Shepherd dogs are CCF’s ‘Paws on the Ground’ partners in conservation.

By protecting livestock and farmer livelihoods, they are also helping to save cheetahs and other predators.

The programme reduces the need for farmers to kill cheetahs by providing livestock management training under the Future Farmers for Africa programme and a LGD, particularly in hot spot areas of Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC).

Where active, the programme has reduced livestock losses by over 90% and HWC by up to 80%.