Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - Education | Date: May 28 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

We are busy organizing four international courses to be held in Namibia in 2008 at CCF, under the sponsorship of the Howard G. Buffet Foundation’s African Cheetah Initiative and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park (NZP), USA. .

Two of these courses deal with Cheetah Conservation Biology and two and will be held from 25 August to 20 September and from 20 October to 15 November. These courses will provide conservation training for international cheetah conservationist biologists at CCF’s International Research and Education Centre, in conjunction with Cheetah Regional Strategic Planning partners.

Two courses dealing with Farmer training and community outreach –Integrated Livestock and Predator Management — are aimed at community development officers and agriculture extension officers in cheetah range countries, and will run from 30 June to 13 July, and 6 August to 20 August 2008. The focus will be on cheetah-human conflict, and the role of farmer outreach programs and community-based training to mitigate these conflict issues.

Course Costs: The course fee is supported by the Howard G Buffet Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo. This includes all training expenses (room, board, educational resources, instruction fees, travel in Namibia and other course related activities) for applicants that are selected to attend the course. However, applicants are expected to cover their own airfare to get to Namibia and health insurance. All applicants requesting partial support for airfares must submit a letter justifying their financial need with their application. They must also confirm that they have already secured financial support from other sources to supplement the partial scholarship.

Eligibility and Application: The courses are most appropriate for those involved in cheetah conservation throughout the world, particularly in Africa. However, those interested in conservation biology, biodiversity inventory and monitoring, animal ecology and behavior, and protected area management will also be considered. Cheetah researchers, agriculture and community extension officers, biology undergraduates and graduates from developed countries, as well as wildlife personnel from government agencies, non-governmental organizations and universities in developing countries, are all eligible to apply for the course. Countries targeted from the SADC region are Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania and South Africa. Other countries include Kenya, Algeria, Iran, Ethiopia, India, Sudan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

For information and an application form, please visit this link: http://www.cheetah.org/ama/pdfs/2008CourseApplicationForm.pdf.

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Category: Cheetah - Education | Date: May 28 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

The Museums Association of Namibia invited CCF to give a presentation at their annual conference in order to raise awareness of the use of museums for conservation and environmental purposes. Of course we jumped at the chance to talk to the conference about why we think our museum is important. Often museums are associated with history and artefacts and people are often surprised that CCF has a cheetah museum. Through informational panels, cheetah related objects, and interactive displays we tell the story of the cheetah from its origin through its current status today in Namibia and the world. This was a great chance to make new friends here in Namibia and let people know what we are doing. Many at the conference were surprised to learn about CCF’s cheetah museum and also impressed with the amount of people visiting throughout the year. Number of tourism related visitors have risen from 1000 in 2002 to 5500 in 2007. We are well on our way to beat this in 2008. These numbers don’t include the number of school groups both international and national and the farmers from training courses.

After the presentation the issue was brought up that it seemed odd to have a museum focus on one species. What I pointed out is that while the focus is on the cheetah there are many bigger issues involved including habitats, prey species, and human’s role. It is important to understand that in order to have cheetahs you have to have a healthy ecosystem which is what much of our museum discusses. For example much of the focus of our farmer training courses are livestock and wildlife management rather than cheetah specifically. In ensuring the survival of a species you are ensuring the survival of an entire ecosystem.

From the conference we have made new contacts including farmers interested in dog programs, school groups wanting to visit, and the possibility of an internship through the Museums Association.

Posted by Laura Linn - CCF Administrative Assistant (Namibia)

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Category: Cheetah - Research | Date: May 27 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

Greetings from Mary Wykstra, CCF’s Senior Research Assistant in Kenya!

The National Cheetah Census was completed in 2007 (see map below) and the findings are being used to compliment a National Cheetah Strategic Plan which is being implemented this year by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). We continue the Human Impact studies through cheetah conflict evaluation, prey monitoring and community development in the Salama area (120 km East of Nairobi). Beginning this year (2008) there will be two programs added to CCF work in Kenya. Spoor counting and camera trapping will be conducted in the Tsavo region by an affiliated researcher. Advanced radio telemetry (radio collars) and faecal hair analysis will be used by a PhD student to compare and contrast home range, social groupings and food preference of cheetahs in the Salama area with cheetahs in the Samburu area.

The Census is vital in order to assist KWS with identifying sustainable and unique populations of cheetahs to compare with historic cheetah range in order to focus future studies and programmes in the areas where they can have the most positive impact.

Menawhile, the CCF Kenya team continues to work hard analyzing tracking and conflict data a part of its Human-Wildlife Conflict program, and working with the community.

For more information about CCF’s activities in Kenya, please click here. To read CCF Kenya’s most recent newsletter, click here. (Opens with Adobe Acrobat).

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Category: Cheetah - General | Date: May 21 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

Many people ask us what it is like to volunteer at CCF. We are fortunate to have volunteers all year round, coming from all walks of life, lending their skills and passion to help us carry out our work, either in Namibia or Kenya. Here is a short essay written by Liz Karch, one of those incredible people that keep us going. For information about volunteering, please visit our web page, www.cheetah.org and click on Volunteer.

Come, Come, Come!

Back in the late 70s, I remember watching the show “Fantasy Island” where people lived out their fantasy for a week. I used to wonder what my fantasy was, but don’t think I really came up with one. That was then, this is now.

In October 2007, thirty years later, I traveled to the Cheetah Conservation Fund and lived out my fantasy. For two weeks I worked along side a team of dedicated, cheerful and talented people. Our little group pulled into CCF on a rainy late afternoon - the first of the “little rains” had arrived. And so had we. The very next morning, we filed into the Hogwarts yard with a group of farmers and walked to the end corner. We were told the rules for the cheetah run: Stay together … Don’t bend down. The three cats stood at attention, the lure started to move and they were off! Everyone watched them intently; they completely ignored us.

But not all of the 46 resident cheetahs felt that way about us. When we appeared at Bellebeno, a 158-acre enclosed area for some female cheetahs, the cats would hear our trucks and meet us at the entrance. They knew we had food and were anxious for us to drive down the dirt road yelling “Come, come, come! Come, come, come!” We would stop the truck and then throw each a chunk of meat.

After feeding the Bellebeno girls, our group had the privilege of bone clean-up. A couple weeks before the little rains came, the cats were temporarily relocated and the staff carried out a controlled burn. Due to the high probability of a lightening strike starting a wildfire, the area had been set on fire. Everything was scorched and black. This helped us find the bones left over from weeks of daily feedings. We would return looking like we had foraged through a charcoal jungle. At night while washing my hair, I would smell like Burnt Bellebeno. How I wish I could smell that now.

Center Feeding was a bit cleaner. Here the cats are kept in smaller, fenced-in enclosures with a separate feeding pen. First we would go in with scoopers and buckets to pick up bones and any waste while the cheetahs hissed and growled and spat from the other side of the fence. Next we’d bring in and line up the bowls of meat. Then we would leave through the gate and open the guillotine. The hungry cats would race in, scoop up their chunk of meat and take off. Some of them, though, would politely eat from the bowl. Those were great photo op moments.

I brought along my new digital camera (about the size of a deck of cards) and kept it in my pocket at all times. You’d never know when that three thousand dollar picture (as one staffer called it) would appear. In my case, I was standing outside the pen area as the other volunteers went in to clean. Four male cheetahs were stalking up to the fence toward me - hissing and growling and spitting and stomping. As if on cue, they lined up perfectly with their hackles up. Click! It nearly drove me wild.

Driving is a way of life at CCF: trekking out to Bellebeno, checking cheetah traps and camera traps and rain gauges, conducting game counts and looking for spoor tracks. Riding down a dirt road - and they’re ALL dirt roads! - on the back of a truck, with a 360 degree view of the Namibian landscape, is exhilarating. But the jewel of it all is the Big Field, also known as “Little Serengeti.” It was mostly here that we saw an abundance of wildlife: red hartebeests, kori bustards, warthogs, black-backed jackals, and a variety of antelopes. The Bellebeno farm is also home to giraffes and zebras. And everywhere there are birds, chipmunks, rabbits, snakes, and other small creatures like lizards and spiders.

Yet the cutest little animals by far are found right at CCF. We were lucky enough to have arrived weeks after Tylee and Ushi - two Kangal Anatolian Shepherds - had their litters of puppies. Those energetic and adorable puppies would run up to you, pull at your shoestrings and nip at your ankles. It wasn’t hard for these future livestock guarding dogs to steal my heart.

My emotions ran the gamut. I got teary-eyed while walking into a cheetah necropsy in progress, and eventually leaving as the sight of an adolescent cheetah was too much for me. Some nights while looking up at a clear and starry sky, tears of pure joy rolled down my cheeks. I experienced tremendous sadness seeing a very old livestock guarding dog, in really bad shape, that had been returned to CCF. Petting Chewbaaka, Kanini and littleC - and listening to Kanini’s thunderous purr - was amazing. Sheer exhaustion felt so pleasurable after a hard day’s work. Never in my life have I worked so hard and enjoyed it so much.

There was, of course, administrative work to be done. My official assignment was to enter the feeding logs into an Excel spreadsheet. I also worked in the Clinic doing filing, and spent a couple hours in the Center’s gift shop straightening up and restocking the shelves. Each and every task, no matter how small or how challenging, was cherished.

Volunteering at CCF was one of the greatest experiences of my life. When I think back (and I often do!) I am so thankful to have been there. Was it a Fantasy Island? In some ways it was. But more than that, it was an amazing opportunity to help save the wild cheetah just by being there. And I can’t wait to do it all over again.

Technorati : volunteer cheetah namibia africa wildlife conservation

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