CBC50%
Orphaned cheetahs experience their first day back in the wild — and do almost everything wrong 30%
By Vanessa Caldwell0%
4/2/2026, 1:17:26 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Biased Writer Voice, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 24.8% saturation with 74 hits. Analysis detected 393 faulty-reasoning hits from 298 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 39.6% and a BS Rank of 30% (11,879 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 70.70% of the article peer group.
It’s the first day back in the wild for cheetahs Lilly and Iris.
The sisters and their brother were three months old when their mother was killed by lions.
Too young to survive on their own, they were brought to Ashia Cheetah Conservation in Paarl, South Africa, 55 kilometres east of Cape Town.
Ashia’s goal was to train the cheetahs — with minimal human contact — and turn them into hunters that could live on their own in the wild.
The cheetahs built their strength and speed on a 400-metre track on Ashia’s compound, with a motorized lure to mimic live prey.
After more than a year, it’s time to see how they’ll fare in the real world.
This clip, from the documentary Cheetah: Fast and Wild, follows Lilly and Iris as they put what they’ve learned to the test.
They’re released into a fenced-off area of Botlierskop Private Game Reserve (their brother was taken to another location).
But even with their training, they don’t yet know which animals are prey and which ones they should avoid.
They pursue a two-tonne rhino (definitely not prey) and are chased by zebras — it’s clear the cheetahs still have lots to learn.
“These two cats did almost everything wrong,” says Anthony Morgan, co-host of The Nature of Things.
But it’s all part of the process.
Staff from Ashia will monitor the cheetahs, and if they go five days without a successful hunt, they’ll receive a supplemental meal.
When they can hunt for three months without help, Ashia will find them a permanent home.
Learn more in Cheetah: Fast and Wild, a documentary from The Nature of Things, now streaming on CBC Gem and YouTube.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.