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!
These are not only the horns of a dead Kudu bull, but could also be a trophy earning the learners’ poverty-stricken parents a good income. To make this a reality, Namibia’s unique resources of wildlife need to be conserved and well managed. As part of our course designed for grade 9 - 12 learners, CCF’s Chris Gordon taught the importance of ecosystem management and exposed them to the idea of conservancies. This has given these learners the first step to become Namibia’s conservancy members in the years to come. Because Namibian cheetahs live on farmland, conservancies and their wildlife management techniques are extremely important for long-term cheetah conservation. Today, conservancies are a growing movement throughout Namibia, and are playing a leading role in the conservation effort. Free-hold conservancies consist of adjacent farms that are linked through cooperative natural resource management, guided by a management plan. Conservation biologists increasingly emphasize that protected areas alone are simply not large enough to sustain the wildlife they were created to protect. Therefore, it is increasingly clear that a focus on conservation on private and communal farmland is crucial. Again, it is important to remember that Namibia’s land is not arable for the most part, so game and livestock farms are in many cases the only possible source of income.
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.
Cheetah Conservation Fund’s Programme ‘Future Farmers of Africa’ presented its first Livestock Marketing Course from the 3rd to 7th of December. It focused on the ideal product, the economic viability of production and on environmentally sound and cheetah friendly production practices. 25 farmers learned to determine weight by girth measurement, which is required to calculate market related prices, to monitor weight gain and to evaluate performance. This is important to farmers without scales on their farms as many may not be able to afford them. Techniques learned in this course will help them get the most out of their livestock. While some predator losses are inevitable these courses help farmers minimize losses while maximizing returns. Stakeholders of Namibia’s meat industry, namely the Meat Board of Namibia and the Meat Corporation of Namibia partnered up with CCF to make this event possible. The number of courses we can offer in a year is often limited by funding. We appreciate your help with this.
(Photo: Farmers measure the weight of a slaughter ox). From Günther Roeber - Course Coordinator
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.
Unfortunately we have experienced a setback that shows the realties we are dealing with. Two of our collared cats have died. The first was shot by a farmer who didn’t know whether it was a cheetah or leopard. This is the lack of knowledge that our education programs are meant to combat. On the positive side, upon visiting his farm to retrieve the collar we learned that he didn’t know much about the cats and is interested in attending our farmer training courses. It is great to meet receptive farmers and to know some good will come out of it. Sadly the second cat to die was Bob, a tailless male that we had seen in our camera surveys for the past few years. This year was the first to see him without his brother. While we do not know the fate of his brother we do know that Bob died of natural causes. He was found at a waterhole next to a warthog carcass. It appeared that the warthog injured him during the hunt.
Since then we have collared and released another male and await the fourth again. This magnificent dominant male weighing 54kgs received a complete medical workup that showed him to be healthy. We collected many samples and froze his sperm in our GRB. His release was a beautiful expression of the freedom and power of this most amazing champion of speed. We continue to check the traps twice a day with the help of our Earthwatch volunteers.
Leia, one of our non-releasable cheetahs, had a problem with her salivary gland recently. This is something that has occured at least twice before since I’ve been here (2 and a half years), and this time I think it’s resolved for good. I noticed that when she hissed, the left side of her tongue looked bubbly; that was the same as before. we had a vet come out and anesthesize her. It turns out there was a miniscule hole in the gland and a piece of foreign debris got in and infected it. Our vet, Dr. Axel Hartmann from Otjiwarongo, took the infected gland out so that she won’t be having anymore problems. She was on antibiotics for a few days and then returned back to her big pen. She’s doing fine. Actually, we introduced another cat into that area, Shadow. Shadow is 9 years old and was at Bellebeno –CCF’s 64-ha pen, but she was getting beat up too often so we decided to move her closer. That was actually the same reason why Leia is also in this pen with Blondi, Sandi, and Dusty. So Leia and Shadow are in the big pen now, and they seem to be ignoring each other for the most part. We are currently caring for 45 cheetahs that cannot be released back into the wild. CCF cares for these orphaned, old or injured cheetahs that cannot be released back into the wild as they do not have the skills or physical capability to survive. Although CCF is not a welfare centre, it does accommodate these non-releasable cheetahs. If another approved home becomes available, CCF relocates these cheetahs to an alternate captive facility. However, many of these cheetahs are permanent residents of CCF, and fortunately we have many donors who help us fund their food and veterinary care through our Cheetah Sponsorship program. We can’t thank them enough for their help! Happy Holidays to everyone! Phil - Research Assistant and Cheetah Keeper
On Friday 16 November, one of CCF’s most important resident cheetahs, Chewbaaka, had a special house call by Otjiwarongo veterinarian for an infected eye. For the last couple of weeks, the famous ambassador cheetah was observed to have a sensitive and weepy eye. The eye became worse, showing signs of broken vessels in the retina and haziness. The local veterinarian, Dr. Axel Hartman, from the Otjiwarongo Veterinary Clinic was contacted and arrangements set to more closely observe the cause of the problem. Chewbaaka, CCF’s 12 year old ambassador cheetah, was orphaned when he was 3 weeks old and has been at CCF ever since. As the star of many TV documentaries, he was anesthetised and treated in the CCF clinic where samples were taken for further analysis.
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
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