Their rehabilitation process seemed promising in the beginning, as they started to hunt almost immediately after their release. After Baxter was killed not long after the release and Dizzy decided to lead a solitary life, the remaining trio only had sporadic hunting success and eventually became sedentary along the eastern boundary fence where game is sparse. After six months of limited movement and minimal hunting success, the decision was made to take Dash, Ruff and Tumble back to AfriCat’s Care Centre in December 2012 where they would act as educational ambassadors for their wild counter parts. The group was called ‘The Masters due to their advanced age and in recognition of their work as “educationalists”.

In May 2017, Dash, Ruff and Tumble had another chance to make it in the wild. We decided to give them this chance because they had always remained quite wild despite their daily contact with people and because we wanted to reduce the number of cheetahs in captivity as much as possible. We were obviously concerned whether they still had what it takes to become successful in the wild, taking into consideration their advanced age of nine years and their many years in captivity. Three days after their release, the trio split up and moved off in different directions. While Ruff and Tumble reunited after two days, Dash moved into the westerly areas of the reserve.