Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - Research | Date: Oct 31 2007 | By: admin

We have now collared cat number four and are currently downloading data from the first three. From these collars we hope to learn the habitat type the cats are using and also their daily movements and use of playtrees. We will also be comparing range size to a 10-year study already conducted at CCF to determine how prey and vegetation changes may have affected this. The pictures below show the collar which weighs 350 grams, and a GMS map showing the movement of one cat through neighbouring farms.

7 responses so far

Category: Cheetah - Education | Date: Oct 15 2007 | By: admin

It has been a busy but exciting week for our education programs. We started off the week with a group from Okamatapatii Combined School coming to participate in our centre based education program. This group of secondary learners stayed at our tented Camp Lightfoot for 2 days to learn about the cheetah and its role in the ecosystem. We started off the day with a cheetah run to show the learners these beautiful and unique cats in action. This is always a highlight for the learners as well as visitors, and it keeps our resident cheetahs in good shape. They also had the opportunity to observe a medical workup of a wild cheetah. Other activities they take part in during their stay include the cheetah feeding, a scavenger hunt through our cheetah museum and a game drive through the big field. Through this they learn not only about the cheetah but how important predator/prey interactions are for the ecosystem as a whole.

The learners also had the opportunity to meet a new addition to CCF, Little C, a four month old male cheetah. Little C was brought to us by a farmer who found him and his dead sibling. Despite attempts the mother wasn’t found and so he came to live with us. He will be an important part of our education program helping us to teach others why these animals should be wild and free. It is important for others to understand that the animals living with us have been orphaned and wouldn’t survive in the wild without their mother.

We have been fortunate to be joined by Courtney Van Dijk, a master’s student in Environmental Education at Lakehead University in Thunderbay Ontario. Courtney brings with her much experience from leading a science camp for five years, to teaching middle school and university students. She has provided new activities not only for the learners visiting CCF but for the teachers of Otjiwarango, our nearest town. She initiated a workshop for local teachers to learn more about implementing Environmental Education in schools and led them through activities that could be shared with their students. We had a good response as many teachers were already interested in the topic and enjoyed learning new ways to include it in their classrooms. She has also helped train our staff to carry on these workshops after she leaves.

4 responses so far

Category: Cheetah - General | Date: Oct 12 2007 | By: admin

In Namibia, the country with the largest number of wild cheetah and CCF’s home base, CCF has achieved important results. Internationally, CCF actively works raising awareness, communicating, educating and training. CCF’s Dr. Laurie Marker is a member of the Core Group of the IUCN’s Cat Specialist Group (CSG), and maintains international communications on the status of cheetah populations worldwide, including their relationship with man, and threats to their survival. However, there is much that needs to be done throughout cheetah-range countries. We must continue to build capacity in these areas.

CCF not only endeavours to conserve the cheetah and its habitat but also to act as a conservation model for other species in conflict with humans, and hence our commitment to globalise our programmes for use in other countries and with other species in conflict with humans.

Our international programme currently includes distributing CCF materials, lending resources and support, and providing training throughout Africa and the rest of the world. Already, CCF is supporting a small satellite office in Kenya. In addition, CCF has trained and helped develop satellite programmes in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Iran, where it continues to provide support, advice, and monitor progress. We are attempting to increase support to cheetah-range countries through the establishment of new centres using the working model developed in Namibia. Shorter-term actions include:

Kenya - The Kenya cheetah population has declined over the past decade. The Kenya Wildlife Service has asked CCF to determine population distribution in the country as well as to identify population needs. CCF established a Kenyan satellite centre and employed two staff to begin research, conservation and education programmes. As it is in its infancy stage it is actively networking throughout Kenya, identifying and communicating with stakeholders to develop confidence and cooperation. And, as was first done when CCF Namibia was established, it is beginning its research with farmer surveys to analyse issues, attitudes and management practices and with eco-system research in game monitoring. Results of research indicate that land fragmentation results in cheetah livestock conflict in high human population areas, with farmers doing very little to alleviate the problem in non-lethal manners. In addition, CCF is assisting with a project in the Masai Mara to study the impact of tourism on cheetahs and has worked with the industry to distribute awareness materials. In cooperation with Friends of Conservation, Kenya Wildlife Service, and Kenya Wildlife Clubs, CCF has provided student and teacher resource materials for their use in schools throughout Kenya. For more information about CCF’s work in Kenya, click here.

Botswana - Botswana’s cheetah population may be the second-largest free-ranging population, and a large percentage of these are found outside of protected areas. Botswana has used CCF as a model in the development of their programmes. CCF has trained the Botswana Cheetah team in handling cheetahs and in developing survey and educational materials that will be utilised with the local farming community. A Livestock Guarding Dog programme is being developed to assist in non-lethal predator control.

South Africa - CCF helped establish Cheetah OutReach, which uses hand-raised, captive-born cheetahs as educational ambassadors at local schools, and introduces the public to the problems facing the cheetah. Cheetah OutReach has adapted CCF’s Namibian education model and has developed and implemented school curriculum with the Western Cape Education Department. This model is being taken into other areas of South Africa.

Iran - The Iranian Cheetah Conservation project is supported by a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) grant titled “Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah, Its Natural Habitat and Associated Biota.” As CCF’s director, Dr. Marker has made several trips during dangerous times to participate in and guide the conservation planning of the last Asian cheetahs.

North and West Africa (Sahel cheetah) - Dr. Marker is an active member of a newly developing North and West African project to identify the needs to save the Sahel cheetah. Currently working in cooperation with the French Zoological Park, the Paris Museum of Natural History, and the Cat Specialist Group, CCF is working to identify key partners to assess the problems and to assist with developing a survey to assess cheetah distribution.

Ethiopia - In November 2005, CCF representatives were able to coordinate a group of Ethiopian officials and concerned individuals helped by representatives in the US Embassy in Addis, the US military unit, and the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme to rescue two cheetah cubs in Gode –south eastern Ethiopia, and transport them to safety. The circumstances of this rescue made evident the problems facing wildlife in that country. Consequently, CCF and the team in Ethiopia are working with other Ethiopian officials and international organisations to develop a protocol for future cases of illegal catching of young animals. In addition, CCF has made recommendations for training and capacity building.

None of CCF’s practices are specific to Africa or cheetahs; thus, many of our programmes are being replicated around the world by other wildlife conservation organisations. Training programs that CCF has developed to work with communities are being incorporated by the Iranian Cheetah Society, Global Cheetah Forum, Laikipia Predator Project in Kenya, Predators and People in Tanzania, and the Jaguar Conservation Fund. CCF’s success was used as a model to form the Wildlife Conservation Network, which uses an entrepreneurial approach in choosing programmes supporting other endangered species including the Andean cat, African wild dogs, and Ethiopian wolves.

3 responses so far

Category: Cheetah - Research | Date: Oct 04 2007 | By: admin

We have been asked why research on captive cheetah reproduction is important to the species, and furthermore, some people have asked us why the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which works to conserve the wild cheetah, would be involved in captive reproduction.

Although saving habitat is our ultimate goal in saving the species, understanding all aspects of the cheetah’s biology and physiology is one of the very important pieces in saving the cheetah for future generations. In the world’s zoos, there is an abundance of older female cheetahs that carry valuable genes that are underrepresented in the gene pool. This research will help develop methods of impregnating the females and thus conserving their invaluable genes and infusing the captive population with much-needed genetic variation. This breakthrough in cheetah reproductive research has far reaching implications for the conservation of cheetah and demonstrates the benefits of an integrated approach of both captive and wild cheetah conservation programmes to ensure the survival of the species.

4 responses so far

Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Cheetah - Education | Date: Oct 03 2007 | By: admin

On days we are not collaring cheetahs and having puppies there is still much to do here at CCF. Our centre is open 7 days a week for visitors to drop in. Education is a big part of our work and this gives us the opportunity to meet with people from all over the world. Our education staff takes them through our cheetah museum were they learn all about the cheetah’s history, biology, ecology, and our conservation efforts.

They are also taken to see the cheetah feeding of our 8 centre cats, Chewbaaka, the Hogwarts’ Trio, and the four Girls. The non-releasable cheetahs we have here were orphaned at a young age and therefore didn’t learn proper hunting and survival skills from their mother. The concern is that without proper hunting, and especially survival skills, combined with plentiful livestock in Namibia, releasing them may cause conflict between the cheetah and farmers. Throughout the year we respond to calls from farmers that have trapped cheetahs on their land. This was the situation with the Hogwarts’ Trio when at 2 months of age a farmer heard them calling their mother over a week’s time. Sadly the mother was never found and they came to reside CCF. Harry was named after the famous Harry Potter series due to a lightning bolt shaped cut over her eye and is in her enclosure with her sister Hermione and brother Ron. They continue to be favourites here at the centre and wow visitors and school groups with their enthusiastic running.

Visitors are also fascinated with CCF’s livestock guarding dogs as the dogs are often seen through out the farm with their goat herd. We use CCF as a model farm to show others that we can live with predators and protect our livestock. And we have news for you: as of yesterday we have welcomed our second litter of the month. Oushi gave birth throughout the night to 8 puppies. That gives us a total of 16 Anatolian puppies to be place with farmers when they reach 8 weeks of age. Until then they will be raised with our goats in order to bond with the herd.

3 responses so far