Racing for Cheetahs at Virginia International Racetrack

CCF's long-time supporter Charlie Atterbury sent us these photos of his son Joey. Joey races in the Grand-AM CTSCC GS Series and was at the Virginia International Racetrack last Saturday. The picture shows his 2010 Riley Technologies Camaro #6.2 with the CCF Logo clearly visible on both the left and right rear quarter panel behind the rear wheel. The other images is from the display that is set up in their garage area for 'meet the drivers' during the fan walk held at each Grand-Am race. Joey is on the right with teammate Devin Cates on the left. You can meet Joey at http://www.grand-am.com/drivers/driver.cfm?series=k&did=3514. Thanks Charlie and Joey! This is excellent exposure for us!

Cheetahs and racing are a great match. Last June, Lord Paul Drayson displayed the CCF logo on his Aston Martin #87 at Le Mans 24. You can photos here: http://www.draysonracing.com/images/2009/ff.html.

If you know anyone who races cars and would like to help CCF gain exposure, please let us know!

Patricia

NamibRand Female - update as of 28/April

The female has remained up in the mountainous region in the eastern section of Neuhof Noord.  She has gone down to the Hammerstein border a couple of times, but at present shows no sign of wanting to return further south.  As of 3 A.M. yesterday morning, she was 8 km east of the NRNR border and 4 km east of the C19 road. 

Rob

 

Checking in - Chewie update

Chewie update –  Chewbaaka had a much better day today. After not eating all day yesterday, he enjoyed a good breakfast. He has been walking around his area and relaxing under a tree. He has eaten 2 kilos of meat today.

Best,

Jane

Cheetah updates from Namibia

This from Jane in Namibia:

Everyone at CCF taking care of Chewbaaka. He is not very interested in food, but his purr and presence remain strong and true.

On a happier note, Cub Tiny is loving her new life living with the Scars. She spends her nights in her own area but goes out with them during the day. She is feisty and is growing very quickly. She has no problem
Trying to steal the occasional bone from her pen mates but they soon let her know who are the bigger ...cats. (She’s basking in the evening sun right now!). 

The photo is of Scar cubs Tony and Phil. I am hoping to get some recent photos from Namibia shortly.

Patricia

Run for the Cheetah in Phoenix! Update from Arizona Chapter Head.

Good afternoon, 

We had a wonderful Run for the Cheetah in Phoenix this morning! It was great to have Laurie here to talk with people who are very interested in helping & supporting CCF!  I don't an estimated to the number of participants yet , but as soon as I get them -will update everyone on numbers and details of the Run. We had beautiful weather and lots of great activities for people. 

I am off to Tucson for the event tomorrow evening that the Reid Park Zoo, Tucson AAZK and Cheetah Kids are hosting for CCF with Laurie speaking. It's a sold out event!!  

Have a great night! 

Claudia Whitehead
Cheetah Conservation Fund Trustee

Chewbaaka not doing very well...

HI – have been back and forth with phone calls this morning about Chewbaaka – he has gone downhill over the past couple days and was anesthetized today for kidney problems -  I got an urgent email this morning from Anais (our vet tech) and fortunately she contacted our friend vet at the National Zoo and decided to give fluid therapy immediately – so as I got the message, Chewbaaka was already in the clinic.  It sounds like he will be OK for a bit – we know that with his age that this was coming.  But, now we will have to monitor him closely.    He apparently vomited a couple days ago and then went off his food and was drinking a lot of water.  He was dehydrated. So,  he should be OK until Bruce gets back home at the end of next week – but this is very worrisome and I hate being so far away from him when he is not feeling well.  

Besides that, the last couple days have been a whirlwind. We arrived in California and have been at talks, media and more lunches and dinners.  Yesterday was the big day at the USC campus – I gave a talk, had an interview with Voice of America yesterday and will do NPR today. Tonight is the big Tyler Awards dinner.  Hope to be less tired today – the last couple days have been exhausting!

The Tyler Committee is made up of great and nice ecologists from many different universities and other environmental groups.  They have treated us really nice.  Stuart Pimm, the other award recipieng, is also very nice and funny.    

Laurie

 

Update from Laurie

Worked on 5 more of our cheetahs today – Our dominant male, Omdilo, who lives in a coalition of 4 male cheetahs - had great sperm!   

I worked on a major grant today – got it finished and sent off.

We have the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) annual certification going on with Bruce and Matti very involved all day with this. Its huge and our entire CCF operation is certified (this is for BushBlok).   

We put cheetah orphan cub RohiniTalaha in with cheetah Polly. They did very well.  Polly batted her on the head a few times, but gently. Rohini followed closely behind Polly but staying submissive.  

I leave tomorrow for Windhoek – I have Good Morning Namibia TV program on Thursday morning, then our Conservancy Association of Namibia Annual General Meeting all day Thursday. Friday I go to a Peace Corps swearing in for new volunteers (we get one – Diana). Then I am back home.   

I leave for the US on Monday.     

Laurie

Quick update from Namibia

Worked on 4 of our resident cheetahs today – littleC was 1^st and he was in good health, however, his sperm quality was low from last year.  Kate, one of our cheetah research assistants, was able to bank some sperm in our Genome Recourse Bank (GRB).   

One of our resident orphan cheetahs, Bella – had a very abnormal looking stomach so we endoscoped her as her and found alot of grass in her stomach. She will stay in a more controlled camp tomorrow so we can monitor her to make sure she is passing her feces properly.   

I worked on a lot of different issues today – a big issue is my  travels to the USA next month. I look forward to meeting many cheetah friends when I am in USA.    

Laurie

Quick update from Laurie

We worked on (annual physicals) another four of our cheetahs today – all were in good health. Collected sperm and banked on one of the males, Livingston.  All the rest of the workups were very routine and were vaccinated and checked for over-all health. 

We also took a team of research collaborators, Drs. Karen Terio and Nadja Wielebnowski from Chicago and their research techs around our cheetah areas. We are collaborating on stress related issues with cheetahs and their environment and have several research protocols that we will be conducting over the next 10 days.   

More soon! 

Laurie

NamibRand female - update as of 6/April

I only have three points from the last week for the female, although two of them are from yesterday.  It seems likely that she spent most of that time on Neuhof, although she seems now to be heading south again and as of 10:36 PM last night she had just crossed the Hammerstein border and was about 80m south of it, and 7 km ENE of the NRNR boundary.

Rob

 

New rhino picture - three together!

I thought you might like to see one of the latest images from the camera network on the CCF reserve.  This is the first time I've got pictures featuring three rhino in shot together.  The back and right rhinos are males while on the left is our youngest female.

Rob

 

NamibRand Cheetahs - update as of 3/4/2010

The boys have done another of their long treks this week, exploring the extent of the reserve to the north and east, then as far south as the Losberg (map).  They both begun and ended their treks as the old holding pens, and appear to have passed close to Keerweder in the early hours of the 27th.  On several occasions they spent many hours in the same location.  

Meantime, the female has moved north again, right off of Hammerstein and onto the farm of Neuhof Noord.  As of midday on 30/March she was 10 km NE of the NRNR boundary and 7 km E of the C19.  She was last on this farm in early December 2009 and unfortunately this is not a good farm for her to be found on. We’ll keep an eye on her movements.

Rob

PS: We received a clarification from NamibRand with good news. The farm Neuhof is now in the hands of new “conservation minded” owners and the cheetahs should be safe there. The new owner plans to make conservation their primary land use.