Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - Research | Date: Sep 23 2007 | By: admin

Part of our research includes estimating populations which is an important part of the conservation of an endangered species. A new population estimate is needed for Namibia and other range countries through a cost effective, repeatable and consistent method. The three methods being used here at CCF are spoor tracking, radio telemetry, and camera trapping. Spoor tracking data is collected weekly and consists of types of species, associated sample area, spoor direction and count of spoor. The species we are tracking include cheetah, leopard, and brown hyena.

Over the last couple weeks we have collared 3 wild cheetahs from different range areas on our farms and are currently collecting data on their movements. This is CCF’s first time using GMS collars and will allow for a much more detailed data collection. All three are cheetahs that we have seen on this year’s camera census. One is a tailless male that we have seen in the previous year’s census, and he appears to be doing quite well despite the lack of a tail. We have 19 camera stations set up throughout our farms and in the month of July took 1400 photos, 92 of which were cheetahs. We are now in progress of identifying individuals from spot patterns and believe to have 8 cheetahs identified. Other than cheetahs we have seen brown hyena and leopard which we’ve also found through our spoor tracking. Both the spoor tracking and camera traps will continue through October.

Today we were surprised to see a Leopard in one of the cage traps. He was a large male weighing in at 71kg! This was some unexpected excitement as we drove up to the check the trap. Our team did a medical workup in the field in order to collect biological samples and take measurements. We believe he is a male found on the cameras from the neighbouring farm. This gave us a great opportunity to learn more about the other predators on our farms. With one collar left we await the final cheetah and so check the cages throughout the day.

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