Cheetah Conservation Fund

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.

No responses yet

Category: Cheetah - Education | Date: Dec 30 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

“I learned to appreciate and respect everything in nature, that’s the domestic and the wild animals, as well as the plants. I learned that everything in nature has its place and that we all depend on each other in one way or another. I learned many ways of becoming a good farmer, one who knows how to work in harmony with nature and not against it because it is easier that way.” With these words one of the participating high school learners nicely summarised CCF’s second week-long educational holiday camp this year for high school learners presented for Namibia ’s Future Farmer’s of Africa, by CCF in partnership with the FNB Foundation.

To achieve CCF’s vision: “to see a world in which cheetahs live in co-existence with people and the environment”, it is important that all stakeholders undertake a concerted effort to identify and implement viable solutions efficiently, addressing this challenge of international importance. Therefore it is imperative that the seed of this thought is planted at its earliest possible stage in the mature minds of our future leaders, the youth of today.” CCF’s programme, ‘Future Farmers of Africa’ targets Namibia ’s custodians of farmland, which essentially includes their sons and daughters.

The course, which I coordinated, shares with the students their current influence on and future role they play in the conservation of Namibia ’s fragile natural resources. Students are integrated into CCF’s conservation and habitat restoration efforts.

Whereas, most sessions of the course were presented by CCF staff members, external expertise was sourced to lecture on the most common wildlife species found on Namibian farmland. Mr Bernd Gaerdes, a commercial livestock producer, tour guide and committed conservationist was again invited for this purpose. Roeber stated that “Learners found Mr Gaerdes’s presentation, supported by a field trip, very interesting and enlightening, especially as he managed to explain both the role and the interconnection of various species in the farm ecosystem.”

Participating high school learners were exposed to the world of cheetah conservation, which essentially included learning about ongoing research at CCF, the farmland ecosystem. Sustainable livestock farming, an integral part of most Namibian’s life, was also extensively addressed; herd and rangeland management, animal health and nutrition, as well as management to prevent losses to predators were a part of the course.

With completion of the course, learners had the chance to meet the cheetah face to face, understand the farm ecosystem and realise what responsible role Namibian farmers play in conservation of resources and the production of food. FNB Foundation’s investment in Namibia ’s youth and their contributions needs to be applauded.

More courses for high school learners will be presented next year.

Happy New Year!

Gunther Roeber

Technorati : cheetah, cheetah conservation fund, conservation, education, namibia

No responses yet

Category: Cheetah - Education, Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs, Livestock Guarding Dogs | Date: Dec 23 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

As a NGO we rely heavily on donations and sponsorships, however the recent economic climate has affected the amount of funds people can afford to give. Therefore in 2009 the cheetah will need even more help from its friends all around the world. So please don’t be shy about spreading the word about CCF to your friends and family, we will need as much help and support as possible.

Despite these difficult times everyone here at CCF is continuing to do their best and as always it’s been a very busy 2 weeks. Firstly I have good news regarding the wild cheetah known as ‘Marvellous Marvin’. As you may recall Marvin came to us in very poor condition, weighing only 37kg. One detail of Marvin’s story I forgot to mention was that he came to us with a radio collar around his neck which had been placed there by Jorg Melzheimer, a researcher for the Cheetah Research Project and good friend of CCF. When we collected Marvin Jorg was notified and was very keen to collect him when he was fit and healthy so he could give him a new radio collar and release him back where he first trapped him. Well, after 3 weeks of receiving a 3kg piece of meat and 2 vitamin pills every day Marvin reached an impressive 51kgs and was therefore ready to be re-released. So on Wednesday the 10^th that is exactly what happened. Marvin was first put under anaesthetic and underwent a work up which was attended by Jorg. We were able to ascertain his weight, take further blood and sperm samples and Jorg fitted Marvin with the brand new radio collar. Marvin was given some time to recover and was then taken by Jorge to be re-released and thanks to his radio collar and Jorg’s research it will hopefully not be the last we hear of him.

Lizzie, our livestock guarding dog programme co-ordinator returned to CCF from her trip to the Mara Conservancy in Kenya and Lizzie is glad to report that it was a huge success. Kenya , the puppy that accompanied her on the long trip who will guard the local Masai’s livestock did CCF proud and behaved impeccably. Lizzie and Kenya were greeted by the Mara Conservancy staff and the local Masai with open arms and great enthusiasm. Lizzie was somewhat overwhelmed by the attention but little Kenya took it all in his stride. The Masai were at first unsure how to handle their unfamiliar new companion and petted him nervously as if he may break, but with reassurance from Lizzie the Masai soon learned that Kenya was made of stronger stuff and gave him a hug or two. So it seems the livestock guarding dog programme in Kenya has got of to the best possible start and we all wish Kenya good luck for his future as a very important CCF livestock guarding dog.

We are also currently running another of our farmer courses where farmers from all over Namibia come to CCF for two weeks and learn all about effective farm management that is profitable and predator friendly.

Finally, our number of resident cheetahs went from 50 to 48 as two of our females, Misty and Rosy, were relocated to the Namibrand Nature Reserve which my colleague Chris Gordon has published a blog about so please make sure you check that out to find out why this was done and how everything went.

Thanks for reading! Matt

One response so far

Category: Cheetah - Education, Cheetah - General | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: cheetahconservation

Visitors, farmers, volunteers and students are always welcome at CCF, and we have certainly kept busy on this front.

With the support of AGRA and the NAU/NNFU President’s Committee, CCF has completed five major farmers’ training courses in integrated livestock and predator management and financial management for over 100 emerging and re-settled farmers. We have also hosted nearly 200 students, including undergraduates from the Polytechnic of Namibia and international university groups from Rhodes, Emory and North Carolina State University.

We recently conducted the first of two international courses. We hosted more than 30 international conservationists from cheetah range countries for a two-week course on Integrated Livestock and Predator Management for extension officers and a month-long course on conservation biology and teaching CCF’s programmes. We are eager to host these workshops and share our model cheetah programmes to expand cheetah conservation throughout the cheetah’s range. These workshops are in cooperation with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Cheetah Regional Strategic Planning partners and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park (NZP).

To our delight, the number of visitors to CCF continues to increase, and in the last four months alone, we have welcomed more than 2,250 international visitors, many of which enjoyed the special pre-booked activities we offer, such as the Cheetah Run or the Little Serengeti tours. In addition, the luxurious Babson Guest House has been in great demand. For information about our activities and the Babson Guest House, click here. We thank our Education staff, headed by Laura Linn, which includes Gabrielle, Steven, Michael, and Pricilla, and we welcome Esther Lenders who is training our staff in visitor relations and hospitality.

No responses yet

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.

One response so far

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)

No responses yet

Category: Cheetah - Education, Cheetah - General | Date: Apr 25 2008 | By: admin

Hi

My stay in California was successful. I stayed with former Earthwatch volunteers, Heidi and her daughter Emily, who were at CCF during 2007. They live on a beatiful farm with a vineyard in Woodside. We talked about vineyards alot. She has a smart partnership with the wine company, who are responsible for prunning and harvesting of the grapes. She has similar problems with birds as does CCF and drapes netting over the vines when the fruits are about to ripen.

I gave a brown bag talk at the San Fransisco Zoo for about 40 zoo docents and staff. They do not have cheetahs there but have other large cats such as tigers, lions, snow leopards and fishing cats. The participants were overwhelmingly interested in the
CCF presentation - lots of questions. My second presentation was at a pizza party in Palo Alto. This event was arranged by the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN). Both Laurie’s parents were present. It was more of a cheetah family event since our main donors and supporters were present. I also had the opportunity to meet members of the CCF USA Board of Trustees.

I arrived safely in Phoenix, AZ Arizona and spent the afternoon helping David Bluestein (the Run for the Cheetah director) with setting up the course. On Friday, I will have a brown bag presentation at noon and a conference call with my team Jaguar.

Defenders of Wildlife has requested that we develop cheetah education materials for kids for their website before August.

I am participating in the Cheetah run on Saturday, 26 April. We are hoping for many runner! My flight back to Namibia will be on Sunday 27th.

Regards,

Matti

3 responses so far

Category: Cheetah - Education, Cheetah - General | Date: Apr 24 2008 | By: admin

If you read our E-letter, you know that CCF Namibia’s Senior Research Assistant, Matti Nghikembua, is visiting the U.S. for the second year. Here is a recent note we received from him:

Hi

I arrived safely here in California - San Jose. I met Vicki and Sharon, past Earthwarch volunteers with CCF in 2007. Yesterday I went to an early Earth Day event at the Westwind Barn with Barbara and Rob Dicely and had dinner afterwards.

At the Cincinnati Zoo, I gave a presentation to the 50 zoo staff, volunteers and a school group that showed up. I also went to visit a school in Bethel where I gave a presentation to 450 kids (ages 5 - 8). That was a lot of energy there given the short attention span, but i made it more interactive. Veronica, who is a teacher at the school, donated A LOT of art supplies which se will ship to CCF Namibia. My stay in Columbus was great and Patty Kuun was very useful.

Regards,

Matti

One response so far

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

5 responses so far

Category: Cheetah - Education | Date: Jan 16 2008 | By: admin

It has been a busy start of the year! We have had puppies being born, generous donations of equipment come to our clinic and genetics lab, cheetahs being collared and one confiscated just last week. I will be posting some of these news shortly. However, with this post we want to share a letter we received from on of the learners that attended a conservation course at CCF last month:

A letter from one of the participants from our“Integrated Livestock-Predator Management for High School Learners” course, held in December 2007.

I am a student of Highlands Christian School in Windhoek, who attended the Integrated Livestock & Predator Management Training Course 2007, at CCF (Cheetah Conservation Fund). My name is Jamie Theron and this was my time at the CCF:

The week long course was a wonderful experience. Not only did I learn a lot but I also got the chance to interact with different cultures, both locally and internationally. I also discovered what a magnificent animal the cheetah is and how much is being done to save it from extinction. I never really thought of the cheetah as a special or even important animal, but after a week at CCF I completely changed the way I thought about the cheetah.

The course was mainly about cattle and goat farming, the management of these livestock and the conservation of the natural environment and wildlife. I am from the south of Namibia where we farm mostly with sheep and goats, but some of the things that I learned during the course can also be applied to sheep farming. It has also awakened an interest in cattle farming and with my new found knowledge and better understanding of cattle farming it may not be such a bad idea to start moving in that direction.

Before we left we were asked to give suggestions to future courses and I would like to suggest a course about small stock management for sheep farmers and/or a course about establishing and managing a game farm. I want to thank all the people who made it possible and contributed to making the course week so much fun and a special thanks to the ladies who provided the delicious food. I had an exceptionally wonderful, amazing time and look forward to attending future courses at CCF.

Pictured above: Learners meet littleC.

3 responses so far