Conservation group says cheetahs are back after 30 years of war in devastated southern Angola

OTJIWARONGO, Namibia (AP) — Scientists saw cheetahs in southern Angola for the first time in three decades since the now-ended civil war devastated the animal's habitat, a conservation group said Wednesday.

After a three day survey in the arid Iona district of Angola bordering Namibia, cheetah specialist Laurie Marker reported the sighting of the fast, spotted, leopard-like wild feline.

Male cheetahs leave their droppings on trees as territorial markings, Marker reported to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, an international research organization based in this northern Namibian town.

"We found nine different marking trees," he said. In one, he saw cheetah dung. Then "two male cheetahs ran out. It was very exciting — there are cheetahs in Angola," he said.

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