Two cheetahs born and raised at a Kent wildlife park have completed their final stage of rewilding and will now live a life of freedom.

Saba and Nairo are roaming the wilds of South Africa without the aid of helpers as part of a groundbreaking project led by the Aspinall Foundation.

The pair, who were born at Howletts, are now entirely self-sufficient hunters - effortlessly taking down large game such as kudu and blesbok with a cheetah’s trademark speed and grace.

They have also been introduced to a female cheetah named Ava, and it is hoped she will choose to breed with one of the brothers and start a family.

In what is the first time hand-raised cheetahs have left the UK for rewilding in Africa, the Aspinall Foundation is delighted with the results.

Damian Apinall, head of the charity, said: "Many doubted that this groundbreaking project was possible, but together we have definitively proven that captive born cheetahs can be successfully rewilded.

"We are already working with other organisations to replicate this incredible project and rewild more cheetahs in Africa, bringing valuable new genetics to local populations and return these stunning cats to their ancestral homelands.

"This is an incredible success for The Aspinall Foundation, Mount Camdeboo and Ashia Cheetah Conservation."

Saba, who hit the headlines in 2018 for escaping from his enclosure at Howletts, and his brother departed from Kent last February and arrived in Africa, 6,000 miles away.

The pair were initially housed in a holding enclosure - helping them adapt to their new surroundings outside Cape Town.

After five months, they were released into a purpose-built 740-acre hunting area designed to teach them how to track springbok, warthog and blesbok - a type of antelope.

They got accustomed to the are immediately and were able to hunt independently for 50 days without the need for supplemental feeding.

And having toned their hunting skills, they took down a large kudu in January.

Pleased with the brothers' rapid progress, the monitoring team have now decided to release Saba and Nairo into a much larger reserve at Mount Camdeboo - the final stage in their rewilding project.

They will still be discretely monitored using satellite and telemetry tracking collars - but will lead a wild life in a 20,000-acre sanctuary.

The brothers' timeline since leaving the UK a year ago is as follows:

• February 2020: Saba and Nairo leave Kent
• February 2020: Arrival at Ashia Cheetah Conservation, where they acclimated to life in South Africa
• August 2020: Transfer to hunting camp at Mount Camdeboo Private Reserve
• August 2020: Saba and Nairo make their first kill, a young blesbok
• October 2020: The brothers encounter a group of sable bulls and are chased off after the sable notice them stalking
• December 2020: They both hunt independently for 50 days without the need for supplemental feeding from their monitors
• January 2021: Aspinall Foundation monitoring team witness Saba and Nairo take down their biggest prey so far, a large kudu
• February 2021: Released from hunting camp into the wider 20,000-acre reserve at Mount Camdeboo

Earlier this year, Carrie Symonds, the fiancée of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was appointed the Aspinall Foundation's head of communications.

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