It has been a long time since our last blog. We have been so busy! But finally, Dr. Laurie Marker’s most recent Field Notes are now available online by clicking here!.

Learn about our latest batch of eight puppies donated to farmers, or the new puppy just arrived from Holland — Annual physicals were conducted in record time on all of CCF’s 47 non-releasable cheetahs while training two vets from the Kenya Wildlife Service — Two male cheetahs captured nearby contributed to the Cheetah Genome Bank — Farmers, schools, volunteers and visitors have kept us busy as we continue to teach them about cheetah conservation — and the capture of another cheetah and her cub gave us an opportunity to teach a Polytechnic group of agriculture students how one farmer’s failed predator control caused another livestock loss. So much has been going on !!!

Find out where Dr. Laurie Marker will be during her May trip to Europe and the US –where she will receive two prestigious awards, and read about her February travels in Cameroon and the U.S. Learn about our latest Run for the Cheetah success in Chicago with 700 runners, including CCF Namibia’s Senior Research Assistant Matti Nghikembua.

So much is happening at CCF. We hope you enjoy the reading.

Patricia

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Over the past two weeks, myself along with CCF research assistants Matti Nghikembua and Ezekiel Fabiano, joined 35 other southern African and international cheetah and wild dog specialists in Botswana to develop a regional plan that encourages the incorporation of cheetah and wild dog conservatoin requirements into land use planning, human wildlife conflict resolution strategies to be implemented regionally, and the development of training and capacity building programs which can be adopted and implemented by southern African range countries.

Following the regional meeting, a Botswana national workshop took place where the strategic regional goals were used to develop national goals and targets for long-term sustainability of these two species. Both the cheetah and wild dog have extremely large home ranges, live at low densities with the majority of their populations living outside protected areas, where conflict mitigation strategies must be employed.

Due to the success of CCF’s long-term projects, many of these served as models for the strategic planning process. The workshop coincided with the publication of a special edition by the IUCN CAT Specialist Group on the Status and Conservation Needs of Cheetahs in Southern Africa. This publication is a result of the last regional cheetah meeting held at CCF in December 2005. Along with this special issue, a Cheetah Compendium was also launched on the CAT Specialist Group Website, which brings all current and historic knowledge together in one place. Both the website and the special cheetah issue were supported by CCF and will help everyone in their work to conserve the cheetah for the future.

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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.

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On 18 September a new litter of Anatolian guarding dogs were born here at CCF. One our top guarding dogs, Tylee, gave birth to nine puppies that morning. Sadly one didn’t make it leaving us with five males and three females. This is the third litter for Tylee as she continues to pass on her remarkable guarding dog genes. Her daughter Uschi is expecting her second litter due at the end of the month. Both litters are fathered by Amos, our breeding male. These dogs will be placed with farmers around Namibia that have applied for a dog to help protect their small stock herds. At 8 weeks of age farmers will visit CCF to pick up their dog and receive training. The livestock guarding dog program started in 1994 to as a conservation tool, helping farmers to live with cheetahs and other large predators. Since 1994 we have placed over 250 dogs around Namibia. We continue to visit farms to check up on dogs placed and maintain the studbook for all dogs born here.

Technorati : anatolian shepherd, cheetah, kangal, livestock management

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