Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - General, Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs | Date: Jun 10 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

Well, it’s been another interesting day down here at NamibRand. Although the boys were fairly relaxed today, they’ve managed to achieve their goal of catching another young Zebra. The must have got it the other day when I saw them on the kill and judging from the crime scene, I think they surprised the group as they were resting. The flattened grass, churned up ground and masses of hoof prints lead me to this conclusion. Also, this would tie in with the near-full moon again and I think it’s fairly well proven now that whenever they get the chance, they use this to their advantage. It is clear that the boys are getting better at killing and leaving the site. They’ve had a lot more meals than that I can assure you, but finding them in the tall grass or even trying to locate the area is very tricky.

I found Shanti’s location today and I think she’s resting in another river bed. I didn’t want to go after her as I thought
that approaching her in a more confined area might freak her out a little. She still seems to be doing great however, and her movements appear normal to me. I guess she likes to travel along these paths as, like the mountains, they provide her with a little more cover and leave her less exposed. Today was incredible windy, and I was nearly blown from the roof of the Cruiser a couple of times while tracking! So, she may have been taking shelter from the elements as well (Nils, you were right about those Eastern winds!).

Other news, as I was looking for Shanti this morning, we got a call from Abraham saying that he had just seen a big Leopard drinking from the Porcupine watering hole. I wasn’t far from here, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Sure enough, we saw a massive male hanging around and stayed with him, watching from a good distance. He was very relaxed and sure of himself, marking just about every large tree he went past. I reckon this could be the guy who the boys met up with as I highly doubt there would be more than one leopard in such a small territory. A good sighting none the less and at least we know to be careful around the area now! He must have weighed in between 60-65kgs. Very cool. I don’t think we’ll have a problem with Shanti meeting up with this brute though, as she seems to be just a little more intelligent and cautious than the males…

I’ll keep you posted though and, let you know what tomorrow brings. Later, -James

PS from Patricia: The picture is of Mushara and Cadbury at sunset, taken from James’ photo album. Thanks, James!

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Category: Cheetah - General, Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs | Date: May 25 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

The day has finally come. The boys moved far enough away today and not wanting to wait any longer, I let Tisha and Shanti out. Well, to be precise they let themselves out. After a morning of checking and double checking that the boys wouldn’t come back, I cut the fence at around 14:00 on 24th May.

Paul and I waited up on the hill in the pen and Abraham, Paul #2 and Willem waited by the feeding site. We all hoped to see the girls run off into the sunset. So we waited and waited. And the others went home and Paul and I waited and waited but to no avail. At one stage I finally saw Shanti but she was watching us, and we were fairly well concealed I thought. Once we moved again behind some rocks, she was still watching us. Finally, after wedging down in to a crevice and not moving for about an hour, she walked over towards the small pan there, but just sat down. Just before the light went completely she moved down to where I think Tisha was resting but they never went for the food.

So, I rushed home and got the night vision goggles and went back out to try again. The problem is, it was a New Moon and pitch black out there. You need to be within 300m to see with the goggles so there was no hope. I left them to leave on their own and came back about an hour later to check up on them.

They’re free!!!!! They’ve left, and taken the meat which I left for them which I’m very pleased with (it was an extra larger portion, probably 4-5kgs each just in case…)

Now, they’ve gone off in different directions but where still very close. They’re probably still eating so I’m not unconvinced they won’t meet up again afterwards to head further out into the wild. I left them soon after as I didn’t want to scare them off their food.

Tomorrow will be a long day; I’ll be starting before it gets light so we have as much time as possible to track them and the boys…

Ok, off to bed. Thanks to everyone for their help and let’s see where these crazy girls drag me. Story of my life actually. Hmm. Later

James
NamibRand Nature Reserve
Cheetah Re-introduction Programme

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Category: Cheetah - General, Cheetah - Research | Date: May 07 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

The boys again ranged towards the mountains a few days ago, but fortunately the lure of the girls seems to be continuing to hold their interest and after scaring our observers for a few hours, they returned to the pens.   Close to the park HQ/farmhouse they made a pretty spectacular kill, although alas it was overnight and no one witnessed it.  The following morning however it rapidly became clear that they’d finally managed to bring down their long sought-after zebra!  A young one, but nonetheless an impressive achievement.  They were Very fat after that for several days.

As April turned into May, they made a hunting trip back out onto the pan once more.  It is a good place to hunt at the moment, with very large herds of game available and it is a nice long way away from any of the park boundaries.  The only catch they appeared to have made however was a springbok, but nonetheless it will keep them going.

On the female front, Tisha and shanti are both starting to show interest in the boys.  They are not yet approaching the fence-line, but they clearly are aware of the boys movements, and are often to be found watching them intently.  They both seem a lot more comfortable now that they are in the big 50 ha pen.

            Rob

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Category: Cheetah - General, Cheetah - Research | Date: Apr 24 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

All 47 cheetahs! Read about it at http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=2009_cheetah_workups_pr. Patricia

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Category: Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs | Date: Apr 24 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

It’s been an interesting time for the boys, and as you can see from the map, they’ve moved around quite a bit.

Last week they gave us a bit of a scare, when they started following the trail of the collared female. Those of you who also monitor her progress will know that she decided to walk out of the reserve last week and, presumably because she was in heat at the time, our boys attempted to follow her. They got to about 2.5 km of the reserve boundary, but after a prolonged rest in the hot sun, James was able to chase them back northwards where they have remained ever since.

The following morning a couple of the boys attempt to climb a tree, with less than spectacular success, and that afternoon they appear to start exploring more of the area (Lindt in the lead), ranging close to the eastern mountains. A few days later they again return to this area, but fortunately show no inclination to try and scale them.

After spending what is for them an unprecedented amount of time away from our females, the boys finally returned to the pens and proceeded to spend several days close by. Ra still does most of the courting (with Misty), although the boys have shown some considerable interest in Tisha and Shanti, although that interest isn’t returned in the slightest and those two stay well away from the fence. Unusually however, the boys have stopped fighting amongst themselves.

It’s been sometime since we found a kill site, but the boys are remaining in good condition, so they must still be hunting as needed.

Yesterday the boys drank from the waterhole close to park HQ (and James’ residence), before heading towards the mountains for much of the day. In the evening they again returned to the females’ pen.

Rob

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Category: Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs | Date: Apr 24 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

The weekly download has come in, and it makes interesting viewing. It appears that our lady went no further south than we had her last week. Instead she turned around and headed up into the Nubib mountains to the East of NRNR. She is currently on a farm called Nubib, which is home to a guest lodge specialising in low budget accommodation and hiking trails. We believe that they are probably cheetah friendly, or at least not particularly cheetah unfriendly. Rob

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Category: Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs | Date: Apr 22 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

Note. The below email has been in my outbox for nearly 24 hrs now - hopefully today the network will be more functional. Most of you are already aware of the situation with the female now anyway, but maybe this map can help visualise it. I have reduced the usual map size and quality to ease the sending.

I’ve just received the data for the past seven days from the collared female, and have to report that she has left the reserve. As you will see from the map she walked south from the Losberg, and the latest position data we have places her 11 km outside the reserve boundary and apparently continuing to move away. James reported a few days ago that he had spotted her cubs operating independently close to the reserve border, but managed to persuade them to move back inwards.

It will be another week before we can retrieve any further satellite data, but I will send that out as soon as I get it. Rob

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Category: Cheetah - General | Date: Apr 19 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

Learn what we have been doing through 2008. Our full-color annual report is now available at http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=progress_reports. Patricia

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Category: Cheetah - Research, Cheetahs | Date: Apr 19 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

The boys seem to have completely settled into their new environment now. They are continuing to spend most of their time close to the penned females, but regularly range out to hunt and have made three oryx kills during this time (see map). The last one was a large male some 1.64 metres in length. Ra and Misty are still the most consistent pairing, although all of the boys regularly vie for attention. As yet there has been no significant interactions with the new females; Tisha and Shanti. Rob

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Category: Cheetah - General, Cheetah - Research | Date: Apr 08 2009 | By: cheetahconservation

Tuesday, 7 April, 2009.Well, the boys did almost next to nothing today. They may have eaten last night but I couldn’t see them well enough to determine for certain or not. I also gave Tisha and Shanti a day off of torment but will resume again tomorrow as I attempt to feed them again. But I have got a story for you.

A NamibRand Tuesday Morning Adventure

I awoke this morning with the sense that something different may happen today. You know you sometimes get that? Well, I wasn’t let down. Shortly after finding the boys in pretty much the same area I left them yesterday, Marcus, one of the workers from Keerweder pulled up alongside me in his Land Cruiser. In broken English and my limited Afrikaans, he told me he had been trying to reach me on the radio. I checked it and found out that someone had turned the volume all the way down. Must have been Andrea, the German student, last night. Marcus then explained he had seen two Cheetahs, un-collared, running along the fences just after the cattle grate between the Wolwedans road and Toekoms. If I wanted to catch them I’d have to hurry he says.

I hit the road fast, very fast, and gunned it up the road until the two were in sight. If they carried along this fence South like this, they would keep going until they reached farmland. Farmland of the unfriendly sort. I cut in front of them and they immediately stopped. One just lay in the grass and the other bolted back North. I got out and the second one took off North. Perfect. I just had to chase the back into the reserve and all would be lekker. Easy right? Not so much.

The first one was nothing but dust in the distance, She (I’ll explain later) made it to a river bed where the fence on the Eastern side was bust and went through, only to re-emerge a few minutes later and cut across to the other side where the fence is not jackal proof, and slipped through easily. One down. The other one would run for a hundred metres and then drop into the grass and hide. I would approach, clap my hands, shout and he would run off again. This went on four or five times until I approached once and he wouldn’t get up. I could tell he was tired and male, obviously scared but too tired to be chased further. Distressed I got a little closer to coax him up again, he ignored me and just lay there, head up looking at me and panting. I then saw that he had a silver CCF ear-tag and couldn’t be much older than a year and a half. They must be “Mom’s” cubs finally out on their own. They looked good but were going the wrong way. I didn’t know what to do so I radioed the warden. Waiting for him to arrive, I was watching the Male and looking out for signs of the female that had made it across to the reserve, just in case she came back for him.

Next, the worst possible thing happened. I was passed on the road by one of these HUGE overlanding tourist trucks. He started running South again at such a speed he was out of sight before I could even get back to the truck, let alone get the thing to start and turn it around. I went after him but the roadside turns into a ditch and even with Paul on the back we couldn’t find him. Mike, the warden, then called on the radio to ask if it was ok to approach and I turned around again. As soon as I did, I saw him come out of the bushes a couple of hundred metres back and cross over to the other side of the road. I started forward again, chasing him North once more, telling Mike to hold fast in case he got a fright again. I managed to get him down to the fence where his sister had gone through. He laid down again just shy of it and getting a little vexed by now, I jumped out of the car, had a quick chat with him and through the fence he went.

I met up with Mike and the other workers and we went back up the road to make sure that wasn’t his sister that had crossed through again. I was certain this wasn’t the case as I had taken good note of his tail colour and face. We saw no sign of any other Cheetahs and headed back, happy to have them back in the safety of the reserve.

I hope you enjoyed my story. I’m basically just putting off doing the dishes. Have a great evening and I’ll let you know if/when we come across them again. Thanks,

James

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