Archive for the ‘Cheetah - General’ Category
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 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
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
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!.
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
Got back on a Sunday night and as night was turning dark we were all in cheetah pens trying to move cheetahs that were not supposed to be together. littleC has grown by a 1/3rd bigger. Chewbaaka has a sore foot - so he sat at the door this morning crying with his paw held up - a cut on his toe. Worked with our Vet team on 2 of the 5 cheetah workups - vet team working like a well-oiled group - 2 vets- 2 retired nurses (volunteers), University of Florida students, 2 vet techs, 2 reproductive physiologists - the rest of our CCF team and students. Had spitting cobra next to bedroom window in mid-morning - Bruce caught it - got spit at in eye - (he’s OK thankfully) - snake has been released - far from house. Pouring down rain - roads over-flowing in Otjiwarongo. OK - its green here - and we have cheetahs coming out of our ears! Thanks for all your help and appreciate all your help in our collective efforts to SAVE the CHEETAH. Posted by Laurie Marker
December has been very busy for all of us, as we were focusing on raising funds to meet our budgetary needs for 2007. Now that the year-end rush has ended, a new year has begun, all of us at CCF, staff and cheetahs, want to thank every one at WildlifeDirect.org for giving us an opportunity to spread the word about our work, and very especially to our readers and donors. Your enthusiasm and thought-provoking comments are very important to us. May 2008 bring all of you much health, peace, happiness, and lots of cheetah purrs!
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.
Over the past few weeks, seventeen Anatolian shepherd puppies were adopted out to farmers throughout Namibia. The pups were born in September, and monitored every day by staff and volunteers. Leading the puppy care was Canadian student, Krisztina Mosdossy. These wonderful Anatolians are bred here at CCF and raised with our goatherd. At eight weeks old they are adopted to qualified farmers to protect their goats and sheep against predators. The dogs bonding period ends around 16 weeks so it is important to place them with the herd they will be guarding at this age. This year, as a way to insure that the dogs get the best care possible, the farmers were required to attend an all day workshop held at CCF. The workshop included discussions on nutrition, preventative health, behaviour, and training. Farmers were given a starter bag of puppy food and encouraged to call us if they have questions. In early January 2008 staff will be visiting the various farms to see how the pups are acclimating to their new environments. Donations made through this site will help us to cover food, veterinary care, and training of farmers. As always keeping costs down for farmers keeps this program running successfully.
The end of the year is always a very busy time for all of us at the Cheetah Conservation Fund. Dr. Laurie Marker, our Executive Director, just ended a two-month fundraising tour in the USA. In Namibia, we continue gathering data from the GSM collared cheetahs. Our teaching farm is very busy and the two litters of puppies are just about ready to be placed. I just finished sending out cheetah updates to everyone who has sponsored one of 45 non-releasable cheetahs under our care in Namibia, and am working on our next eLetter which should go out within the next few days. This will be also an appeal, as we are in urgent need of cheetah sponsors. With 45 mouths to feed, our costs are approximately US$5,000/year per cheetah, which provides food and veterinary care for all of them. If your holiday plans include giving a gift that lasts a whole year, sponsor one of our cheetahs! You can meet them at www.cheetah.org = Sponsor a Cheetah. Worldwide, we are preparing to send out our year-end thanks to everyone who has supported us in 2007. Through all this flurry of activity, I couldn’t stop but thinking of all the great and supportive comments we have been receiving since we first started posting our blog at wildlifedirect.org just about two months ago, and today, much to our delight, we received news of our first donations through this great web site! On behalf of all of us at CCF, staff and cheetahs, I want to thank our new donors, our readers, and the entire wildlifedirect.org team, which has been truly fantastic. Every donation we receive reinforces our belief that saving the wild cheetah is worth every effort on our side. Thank you so much! Patricia Tricorache - International Programmes
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. |
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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 !!!
