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Austria’s Anna Fenninger is not only an Olympian athlete but has also been busy as a steadfast advocate for the Cheetah Conservation Fund, and an European CCF Ambassador. Fenninger and Cheetah’s have one very important characteristic, they’re both extremely fast. Cheetah’s are the fastest land animal, clocking speeds of 70 mph while Fenninger had the fastest time in the ladies’ alpine super-G, with a time of 1 minute, 25.52 seconds winning the Olympic gold.
Fenninger went to Namibia last year to learn more about cheetah’s and how to help in the race against their extinction. As detailed on the CFF website, the cheetahs face extinction mainly due to loss of habitat, conflict with humans, as well as its own loss of genetic variation. The Cheetahs need large passes of land to survive, but with changes in land use and habitat pressures, the area is diminishing quickly. Largest populations of cheetahs are found in Namibia and with the country’s rising expansion, there was a drastic decline of the cheetah population in the 1980’s where the population was halved, leaving approximately 2,500 animals in the 1990’s. With the help of the CCF’s work beginning in the early 1990’s and over the last couple years, the cheetah population has stabilized.
Anna also took her activism to the Olympic platform by proudly wearing a cheetah print helmet down the slopes and airing the short video below which features her in a cheetah catsuit to garner attention for the CCF. Fenninger in partnership with the CCF released a 2014 cheetah themed calendar shot by photographer Thomas Kettner “With this calendar I try to draw attention of the difficulties between the people especially the farmers and the cheetahs. I hope much more people get interested in it and try to help” said Fenninger. All net income from the calendar will be donated to the CCF.
