Josie & Merlot: An Introduction

by Ryan Marcel Sucaet

24 October 2012 was a remarkable moment in a long history of two neighboring cheetahs who were given a second chance at becoming a bonded pair.  Josie and Merlot, two resident males, arrived to CCF in August 2000 and 2001, respectively. Initially, Josie was housed with Gremlin, another male.  

In 2009 Gremlin had to be euthanized due to an injury, leaving Josie alone in his pen.  Next door (sharing a fence line), Merlot was originally housed with Klein. The two were extremely bonded to one another.   In mid-February 2012, Klein was euthanized following a 3-year fight against Herpes Viral Dermatitis, cancer, and renal failure. 

In 2009, an attempt at bonding Josie with Merlot and Klein, had resulted in failure. In October 2011, Josie was neutered and introduced to two females, Misty and Shadow (both 13 years old), but this attempt at housing Josie with other cheetahs also did not work out.

The 24^th of October was the first attempt at reuniting Josie and Merlot since 2009.  The Cheetah Husbandry team was prepared for the worst, but hoped for the best.  It was decided to introduce Merlot to Josie, inside Josie’s small feeding pen. 

I accompanied the two males for another 30 minutes by myself, to give them more privacy and to be a deterrent in case a severe fight broke out.  Fortunately, there was no fighting, no growling and no need to intervene.  After about 20 minutes of observations, I could hear them purring as they lay beside one another, back-side to back-side.  Considering their history, I found this unfathomably miraculous to witness.

Since the introduction, the boys have fought briefly, but this behavior is typical.  Josie and Merlot need to determine their hierarchy to maintain peace between them.  As long as they do not fight ruthlessly they will remain together.  Less than a week later, the two are still fine.  It has definitely been a great start to a (hopefully) long-lasting bond between two old males and two old neighbors.

Volunteer Blog: Andrea Pieroni

Today we present a guest blog entry from one of our Earthwatch Volunteers, Andrea Pieroni. Enjoy!

My name is Andrea Pieroni and I’m from Watt, Switzerland close to our largest city, Zurich.  My country is 20 times smaller than Namibia and has about 42,000km² comparing to Namibia with 812,000km².

I was always interested in wildlife, especially the big cats.  When I was in South Africa in 2006 and had the chance to hold a cheetah, I immediately fell in love with this animal.  When I went home, I started to get more information about cheetahs.  I found the homepage for Earthwatch, which had all the information I needed.  Due to my job (IT consulter) I could not become a volunteer until this year. 

I am happy to be here and escape from the rain and cold in my country.  At CCF, I like to do all the necessary work and not just the work involving the cheetahs.  I enjoy doing whatever is needed to do in order to help run this beautiful place.  Of course I would want to be with the cheetahs all day, but I learned that CCF is more than just cheetahs.

I have worked very hard on camera trap data entry where I have been able to see what animals are doing throughout the day and night.  There are funny pictures too, like a warthog that was smiling into the camera.  I also loved doing the evening game counts where we record all the species we see on the drive.  When I did the waterhole count, I had the chance to observe giraffes: 1 female and 3 younger males drinking from the waterhole.

I look forward to my next project at CCF as well as my next plan in life.  It is hard for me to go back to my cold country and work behind a computer screen all day.  But I still have a dream to come back to this beautiful place and revisit all the wonderful people I have met here.  I especially want to thank Belinda Hans (CCF Administrator) and Brian Badger (CCF Operations Manager) who helped make my dream come true. 

Thank you all and I wish I could stay here longer.

Andrea

"N" is for Northern Black Korhaan

CCF has carried out a number of camera trapping surveys, and also maintains a network of cameras positioned for ongoing monitoring of the wildlife on our land.  While we are mainly focused on cheetahs, there are many other species out there, and the cameras will trigger no matter what passes them by.  In this series of weekly blog entries, I will use these pictures to illustrate some of the wealth of animal life in Namibia - one species per week.  I hope you will enjoy seeing a little more of our world here in the bush.

When referencing African wildlife, most people automatically think of the mega fauna while the smaller species tend to be forgotten.  So today’s blog will highlight one of these overlooked animals: the Northern Black Korhaan. 

This bird species belongs to the bustard family.  Its key features for identification is its lain black neck, bright yellow legs and red base of the bill.  This species is most commonly solitary.

Males defend their territories from each other by attacking outside males with its wings, causing the other males flying off.  The males mate with multiple females who incubate 1 to 3 eggs and raise the chicks alone.

They are found in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Angola where they occur in the nama Karoo, sandveld areas, open savannah and grass covered dunes.  They prefer open grassland and scrub.  The diet of the Northern Black Korhaan consists mainly of insects like termites, beetles and grasshoppers, but it also eats seeds from grass and fruits.  The Northern Black Korhaan is listed on the IUCN Red List as a not threatened species.

Bella's Emergency

On 9 October 2012, CCF cheetah keepers Juliette Erdtsiek and Ryan Sucaet noticed that Bella, one of our female cheetahs, had a swollen face.  Initially thought to be a sting from an insect or bite from a snake, the situation worsened, as she was not feeding properly, favoring the right side of her mouth.  For close monitoring, Bella (along with Padme) were kept in holding pens to ensure the symptoms did not worsen.

Three days later, it was clear that Bella had a scratch, either from herself or Padme, that had ruptured into an abcess.  With the loss of pressure from the opening of the abcess, the swelling dramatically decreased, but the wound was more susceptible to infection now.  Luckily, on the day the rupture occurred, our veterinarian Amelia Zakiewicz had prescribed Bella antibiotic and pain killer medications. Further investigation of the open wound, indicated it was actually caused by a problematic tooth.

On 15 October 2012, Bella was anesthetized so that we could discover the true cause of the ruptured abscess.

During Bella’s stable two-hour anesthesia, it was clear the problem was worse than anyone previously thought.  The four and a half year old cheetah had a severe tooth root abscess on her upper left carnassial.  Luckily,Otjiwarongo dentist, Dr. Dennis Profitt was enlisted to help with the procedures.  Bella received two root canals on her carnassial.  She then needed an incision on the inside of her mouth (just above her tooth) to clean out the root and save her carnassial.   Because of Bella’s young age, and because she had a high chance of being re-wilded, CCF found it to be imperative that Bella keep her tooth.  A cheetah's teeth are crucial for feeding, especially tearing meat apart.  She received five stitches on the inside of her mouth to close up the incision along with one more on the outside of her face to close the exterior wound.

The following day, Bella recovered nicely from her anesthesia and there was almost no swelling to her face.  Her behavior was normal, hissing and slapping at people and her appetite was back to usual as she gorged herself on cut up pieces of meat.  Post-treatment medications include a series of painkillers and more antibiotics.  We are all hoping Bella has a healthy and quick recovery.

Cheers from CCF,

Ryan Marcel Sucaet

Assistant Cheetah Keeper & Research Assistant

sucaetry@gmail.com

Another Mongoose!

CCF has carried out a number of camera trapping surveys, and also maintains a network of cameras positioned for ongoing monitoring of the wildlife on our land.  While we are mainly focused on cheetahs, there are many other species out there, and the cameras will trigger no matter what passes them by.  In this series of weekly blog entries, I will use these pictures to illustrate some of the wealth of animal life in Namibia - one species per week.  I hope you will enjoy seeing a little more of our world here in the bush.

When referencing African wildlife most people automatically think of the larger fauna (elephants, giraffe, rhinos), while the smaller species tend to be forgotten.  So today’s blog will highlight one of these overlooked animals: the slender mongoose.

Like the name suggests, this mongoose has a very slender body of 27.5 - 40cm, accompanied by a long tail of 23-33cm.  The males weigh around 640-715g while the females are smaller, with a weight of 460-575g.

Their colour varies according to the subspecies, ranging from a dark red/brown, to shades of grey, or even yellow.  They can easily be distinguished from other mongoose in the region by a prominent black tip on the tail.  The slender mongoose's fur is also silkier than any other member of the Herpestidae family.

These small mammals normally live alone or in pairs, and can be found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.  They are not territorial but do maintain stable home ranges, which they share with other family members.  They are adaptable and can live almost anywhere within this wide range, but are most commonly found in the savannah and semi-arid areas.  Slender mongoose are mostly carnivorous but occasionally omnivorous.  They usually eat insects, but from time to time also eat lizards, amphibians, rodents, snakes and even fruit.  They have the ability to climb trees and will often hunt birds! Slender mongoose are listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List. 

"M" is for Mongoose

CCF has carried out a number of camera trapping surveys, and also maintains a network of cameras positioned for ongoing monitoring of the wildlife on our land.  While we are mainly focused on cheetahs, there are many other species out there, and the cameras will trigger no matter what passes them by.  In this series of weekly blog entries, I will use these pictures to illustrate some of the wealth of animal life in Namibia - one species per week.  I hope you will enjoy seeing a little more of our world here in the bush.

When referencing African wildlife most people automatically think of the megafauna while the smaller species tend to be forgotten.  So today’s blog will highlight one of these overlooked animals: the banded mongoose.

The banded mongoose is a small yet sturdy animal that can weigh between 1.5 to 2kg.  They are dark brown/grey in colour with brown bands running down their body and tail.

Unlike most mongoose species that are solitary, the banded mongoose lives in large social groups where all the females mate and produce young.  When the groups get too big some of the younger females will be pushed out of the group by the older females and males and will form groups of their own.

They are listed as least concern by the IUCN and can be found throughout East and South-central Africa; they are extremely adaptable and live in a variety of habitats such as savannah, open forests and grassland, although they do prefer to stay near water.  Their main diet consists of beetles, millipedes and other insects but they will also feed on small frogs, birds and eggs to sustain their diet. 

"L" is for Leopard

CCF has carried out a number of camera trapping surveys, and also maintains a network of cameras positioned for ongoing monitoring of the wildlife on our land.  While we are mainly focused on cheetahs, there are many other species out there, and the cameras will trigger no matter what passes them by.  In this series of weekly blog entries, I will use these pictures to illustrate some of the wealth of animal life in Namibia - one species per week.  I hope you will enjoy seeing a little more of our world here in the bush.

It gives me considerable pleasure to talk this week about my undoubted favourite of the big cats; the Leopard. Graceful and lethal, males can weigh up 90 kg, and are nearly 2m long.  Yet despite their size, they are rarely seen, and most historical estimates of their population have been found to have been produced using highly unreliable methods.  We do know that they existed over a significantly larger range than they do today.

Despite that range reduction, leopards can still be found in over 70 countries across sub-saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, and SE Asia.   They are highly adaptable and can survive in a wide variety of habitats from deserts to swamps, to grasslands, and even rain-forests.  They seem most at home in mountainous and rocky areas, however.  Leopards are often portrayed as the most intelligent, and dangerous of the big cats. San Bushmen in Namibia have reported that while their hunting parties will sometimes chase lions off a kill and take the meat back to their village, they would never dare to steal from a leopard for fear of it following them home and taking something, (or someone) else, in return!

The IUCN lists the leopard as "Near Threatened", but also say that it might be reclassified as "Vulnerable" in the future, due to habitat losses and the numbers of leopards killed in an effort at "pest control" (mainly to protect against livestock losses).  It is legal to trophy hunt leopards in most countries, and while these hunts may or may not have a significant impact, their inclusion in that most infamous of hunting lists -- "the Big Five" -- has resulted in massive numbers of leopards being killed for their skins.

Leopards eat a wide variety of prey, from small rodents, arthropods and birds, to larger antelopes, and, where wild prey is unavailable, they will, like other predators, take domestic livestock.  Such incidents are less common than is generally believed, and many leopards are unnecessarily killed as a result of perceived and unfounded threats.

Here at CCF, we have a large and healthy leopard population dominated by an 8 or 9 year old male that some staff have nicknamed Goliath.  Both our field staff and camera traps see leopards frequently, and they never fail to inspire a sense of awe and joy.

-- Ryan Sucaet