Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Cheetah - Research | Date: Jul 12 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

Hi, I’m Matt Solberg an intern here at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia. Growing up, I’ve always been passionate about wildlife conservation. Born in Eugene, Oregon, I spent a lot of time enjoying the outdoors. The woods became my backyard as I explored every hillside and mountain top. I dreamed of exploring distant continents and studying wildlife abroad. During my freshman year at Oregon State University I looked into travelling abroad. After attending a presentation on the CCF, I was hooked. I looked into IE3 (a global internships program at Oregon State University) and discovered several international internships abroad. IE3 matches students with host organizations who strongly support experiential education to develop internships that relate to the student’s career interests. I was amazed by previous student’s experiences with IE3. Working directly with my college, IE3 offered a chance to learn abroad while providing me with credits in my major. As a Zoology major interested in conservation and human-predator conflict, I knew CCF would offer an amazing opportunity that fit my interests.

Currently I’m using camera traps to survey predator populations on CCF’s eight farms. I was inspired to work with trap cameras after meeting Dennis Wilson, a biology professor in Phoenix, Arizona. Dennis had been visiting CCF to teach an international course and collect data for his courses back home. Intrigued by his research, I talked with Dr. Laurie Marker about my interests and the possibility of working with trap cameras. Days later, Dr. Marker introduced me to a three month project working with trap cameras alongside Matti Nghikembua (CCF’s Senior Research Ecologist) and Ryan Richards (the Intern Coordinator at CCF).

The camera trap study focuses on predator behaviour around sites known as play trees.  Play trees are large sloped trees commonly visited by cheetahs and leopards. Predators often mark territory, leave scat, scratch claws, and survey the savannah at play trees. With 36 trap cameras and 18 stations, we set up 2 cameras at each site. These cameras allow us to record what animals live in the area, how numerous they are, how they are living amongst farmers, and what condition they are in. The cameras are set eight meters apart on posts 75cm high (predator height). This allows us to see passing wildlife and identify distinguishing marks on the animal. Using these unique marks we can determine how often the particular organism visits the site. The trap cameras provide a non-invasive approach to data collection. The information collected helps CCF understand how local wildlife coexist with agricultural communities.

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Cheetah - Education, Cheetah - General, Livestock Guarding Dogs | Date: Feb 11 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

The last couple of weeks have seen the arrival of many new faces at CCF including 10 American students and three of their teachers from the University of Florida who will be with us for 2 months. The trip has been organized by Aletris Neils of the University of Arizona (a former student intern at CCF in a similar program in 2002), and is the second of its kind after last year’s was deemed a huge success. During their time here, the students will be conducting their own studies which include radio-collaring dormice, an investigation into bird calls, bat identification and small mammal trapping to see if roads act as barriers. They will also do a 24 hour waterhole count, visit

Etosha National Park and give presentations to CCF staff on Namibian culture and human and wildlife conflict. The students have already fitted in nicely and have mucked in with pen cleaning, taken part in puppy aptitude tests and braved standing in the back of the feeding car even though it meant getting a soaking from the rain and puddles! So they appear to be made of the right stuff and we look forward to spending more time with them over the next few weeks and finding out the results of their studies.

I hear some of you asking what exactly I mean by a ‘puppy aptitude test’?! Well, when our livestock guarding dog puppies are around 7 weeks old, we carry out a number of tests on them which aim to tell us how good a guarding dog they will be. There are 11 tests which include seeing how well they respond to being called, tossing a ball and seeing if they fetch it, making a loud noise and seeing how they respond, and pinning them down on their back and seeing how they react. Each puppy gets a score for each test and the results are then analysed. Unfortunately rain prevented us from testing all the pups so you will have to wait for the next blog to find out their verdicts!

This week also saw the arrival of lots of kids and lambs which has meant lots of work for Gunther and his helpers Lazarus, Joe and our herder Aramas, especially as the aforementioned rain has made for less than ideal conditions. An important task they have had to carry out is making sure each birthing pen has an ‘island’ so that the little kids can sit on top of it and stay dry during the rain. We have so many newborns that we have had to move some of them into a couple of our empty cheetah pens! So far we have had 62 kids and 14 lambs and more should have arrived by the time you read this.

Finally, CCF has two new staff members, Anza Jansen Van Vuuren and Morne Du voit. Morne will have his hands full on the maintenance side of things, especially with our vehicles as there always seems to be something wrong with them due to harsh conditions they are subjected to! Anza will take on some of the duties that Laura Linn used to do; sadly, Laura said goodbye to CCF this week after being here for just over two years. For that period Laura has been the glue that has kept everything at CCF together! She was responsible for many of the things essential for the day-to-day running of CCF including scheduling the daily activities, running the gift shop, making sure our daily visitors were happy and looking after student groups and important guests. You will also see her name attached to the 2006 and 2007 International Cheetah Studbook. Last, but certainly not least, Laura was key in raising our ambassador cheetah littleC, who turned out to be a handsome (although Laura would probably want me to say VERY handsome) cheetah with a very friendly nature. He will make a great ambassador as he follows Chewbaaka’s steps.

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes | Date: Nov 07 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

October 30th was a very, very exciting day and a dream come true for a few of us, because black rhino were returned to their former range within the CCF Reserve lands. A 3 ½ year old female was delivered by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism Animal Capture Team and released within the 12,500ha (31,000 acre) CCF Rhino Reserve. The young female is the first of six rhino that will be placed at CCF as part of a government Custodian Program.The female was born in Etosha National Park. She wandered off the park about three weeks ago and the Ministry thought it better to relocate her to CCF than return her to the Park (which has a robust population of black rhino). She appears to be healthy and, as a young female, will probably not object to being alone for awhile before other rhino arrive. She is fitted with a transmitter in her horn which will facilitate our monitoring her movements. Black rhino are browsers and should thrive on the acacia and related bushes on the Reserve. They drink at least every second day. While the Capture team veterinarians were a little concerned that she was dehydrated when captured this morning, upon release this afternoon she immediately drank from and waded through water in one of the dams where she was released. The next day, a second Etosha-escapee arrived. He is a 5 1/2 year-old male and appears to be in excellent condition too. The rhino reserve is a collaborative effort involving CCF and neighbors Carl Hilker and Harry Schneider-Waterberg. We are so very excited and wanted to share this with you. Thanks to all of you for helping CCF - the cheetah’s helping the rhino will have huge rewards for both the species’ future. I am attaching a couple photos of the exciting day!!!!! Wish you all were here to be a part of this historic day. All the very best, Laurie

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Livestock Guarding Dogs | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

Sadly, our oldest breeding female and one of the founders of our dog programme, Zanta (at right, six years ago), had to be put to sleep due to age-related illnesses. She was 13 years old and had produced five litters and 54 litters number of puppies. Her daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughters are carrying on her legacy.

On a happier note, CCF staff members Liz Lester and Gebs Nikanor continue to work with the farmers to monitor the working dogs. All the dogs are doing well, although one was re-homed due to a lack of proper care by the owner. At the same time, research and treatment on several dogs that have been diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma on the tongue has continued, with Dr. Axel Hartman from the Otjiwarongo Veterinary Clinic taking the lead. The new Kangal puppies from Holland are growing fast, now six and eight months old. One of our older breeding females was just bred, so we can plan for puppies in two months.

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

CCF Kenya’s renovation of four cattle dips in the Kiu area, designed to encourage sustainable farming, is having a great impact on the community only two years after implementation. CCFK Community Liaison Officer Lumumba (left, at community meeting) says the attitude of people who have lost livestock and their willingness to be interviewed has dramatically improved in the last year; he often gets thanked for our community work as well. With a donation from Eco-Sys, CCFK has purchased trees that are being planted in the areas with the two best-managed dips and has covered part of the cost of running piped water and building a water trough for the cattle to drink from (rather than the dam 500m away). CCFK has also finalized details of the National Census for a final report. More than 8500 data points on cheetah, other predators and prey species were collected in central and northern Kenya from June 2006 to September 2007. This data will fill in many questions on the distribution and status of cheetahs. Click here for more information on CCF Kenya’s activities and newsletters.

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs | Date: Jul 23 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

A year of planning came to fruition this past weekend when Cheetah Conservation Fund took five of its cheetahs to the NamibiaRand Nature Reserve in the south west of Namibia boarding the Namib-Naukluft Park. The six year old male cheetahs - Ra, Kia, Mushara, Lindt and Cadbury, were housed in a 50 ha camp at the Amani Lodge, near Windhoek, for the past three years.

The Cheetah Conservation Fund research team worked on the group of cheetahs at Amani Lodge prior to their transport to Namib Rand on Sunday. The cheetahs were anaesthetised for sample collections including blood for overall health, genetics. Sperm was collected and frozen and the cheetahs underwent endoscopies for a collection of gastric biopsies. These cheetahs have been a part of CCF’s long-term research studies.

At NamibRand, the cheetahs were placed in a two hectare holding pen where they will stay for the next 10 days. A soft release is scheduled for the 29^th of July when the pen will be opened for the cheetahs to go free on their own. The cheetahs will be followed closely using radio and satellite tracking under the direction of the Cheetah Conservation Fund research staff.

CCF and Namib Rand have worked closely with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to plan this release. All five cheetahs have been radio collared will be followed using satellite radio-telemetry technology. Dr. Laurie Marker, CCF’s Executive Director said “re-introductions are not simple. It’s very important to closely monitor the behaviours of the individual cats to ensure their health and adaptation to their new environment. CCF has been conducting research on re-introductions and this is the third project. There is not a lot of suitable habitat due to the extent of land under livestock production and habituated cheetahs need large uninhabited areas. NamibRand is ideally suited for this long-term re-introduction project.”

This is the first time a structured re-introduction is being attempted. Previous attempts to re-introduce cheetah into this area have not been successful due to various reasons including unsuitable animals and the lack of an intensive, long-term monitoring program. The cheetahs chosen for this release are likely to settle into the area as they are habituated and will allow access to tracking. In addition, these cheetahs, having lived in a large camp and have been successful in hunting game previously and it is expected that they will successfully adapt tot their new environment.

One aim of the NamibRand Nature Reserve is to restore the balance of the natural ecosystem. Up until thirty years ago there were cheetah in this area of the country. However, livestock farming practices have eliminated cheetah in this region. Since the establishment of the NamibRand Reserve, game populations have increased substantially, providing adequate prey for these cheetah. Nils Odendaal, CEO of NamibRand Nature Reserve said “we are thrilled to finally be able to release cheetah on the Reserve, as it has been an ambition of ours for several years to restore cheetah to the area, creating a holistic ecosystem.”

The collaborative team of CCF, NamibRand, Amani Lodge and the MET is hopeful that cheetahs can be restored to this area to once again play their key role in a balanced ecosystem. This historic event is being documented by Gecko Productions from the United Kingdom for a Channel 5 TV.

Dr. Laurie Marker from Cheetah Conservation Fund and Olivier Houalet from Amani Lodge release one of the cheetahs into their new temporary camp.

Drs Laurie Marker (closest), Axel Hartman and Anne Schmidt-Kunzel conducting health checks on cheetah before transport to NamibRand.

Cheetahs feeding on a springbok carcass on arrival at their temporary holding camp at NamibRand Nature Reserve.

The team working together on this cheetah release, including Cheetah Conservation Fund and NamibRand Nature Reserve research staff, Amani Lodge and Gecko TV productions.

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Cheetah - Education, Cheetah - General, Cheetah - Research | Date: Apr 20 2008 | By: admin

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

Tags: 243, 248, 249, 250, 251, 46

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes, Cheetah - Education, Cheetah - General, Cheetah - Research | Date: Dec 18 2007 | By: admin

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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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.

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Category: Cheetah - Conservation Programmes | Date: Sep 23 2007 | By: admin

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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