One arrived to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) at
four and a half months old, the other, four and a half years old. Luna and
Athena, two of CCF’s captive female cheetahs, were selected to be translocated
to Erindi Private Game Reserve in Namibia to live the remainder of their lives
in the wild. Sharing their new home with
lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, hippos, crocodiles and other cheetahs was
going to be an interesting and challenging experience for our cats.
These two females were chosen to be re-wilded based on
many conditions. Luna was always a
wild-behaving cheetah in captivity, spitting and hissing at her keepers and
causing fights with other females in her enclosure. Despite arriving to CCF at such a fragile and
inexperienced age, it was decided to put her through the soft-release program
in January 2012 to see if she could hunt and find water on her own while inside
CCF’s 4,000ha game camp. Luna dominated,
preferring to hunt duiker and warthog piglets.
In mid-October 2013, she returned to the game camp for a second time and
once again she exceeded all expectations, plowing through our eland calf
population.
Athena came to CCF at a much older age and it was already
known that she could hunt. However, she
was captured twice by famers for hunting livestock and could not be returned to
the wild as she was now considered a “problem animal.” Athena was previously known to CCF staff as
“Toeless” when our veterinarian team had to amputate one of her toes as a result
of an injury she obtained from the trap cage and enclosure of her first capture
on a farm in Gobabis.
Luna and Athena were put into the same enclosure together
for nearly a month prior to going to Erindi in a last minute attempt to bond
them.
On 15 October 2013, the females were captured in transfer
boxes and transported to the game reserve to start their new lives as wild
cheetahs. They were released together at
a waterhole in front of the lodge with over 80 guests watching less than 100m
away, all of us sharing an unforgettable experience. The box doors were opened
and both females bounded out, as if inhaling freedom for the first time. Athena ran off and did not look back. However, Luna was called back to the
waterhole by Head Cheetah Keeper, Juliette Erdtsieck using an eland calf leg as
bait. Luna ended up ignoring the calf
leg and went straight to the waterhole to drink. Later in the evening, the cats were found
again and the two females were found together crossing a road!
After the first week in the Erindi, the two have since
separated. Athena (5 years old) has
managed to kill two young male piglets and a newborn oryx calf, however has not
found a reliable water source yet. Luna
(9 years old) has returned to the release site waterhole several times now, but
has remained unsuccessful at hunting.
Luna has been supplemented with food to keep her energy up. Both females have run across the foreign
sounds of nearby lions and hyenas but have managed to avoid these larger
predators. Luna has already been
observed by many tourists as she is most comfortable with the safari
vehicles. Athena still retains her wild
attitude and refuses to let the safari vehicles close to her, even the ground
team is having a difficult time tracking her.
Our goals for the next week are to slowly habituate Athena and have her
find water. For Luna, we just need her
to make a kill!
Stay tuned for future updates on the freshly re-wilded
female cheetahs of Erindi.
Ryan Marcel Sucaet
Asst. Cheetah
Keeper & Research Asst.
Posts
Magnificent.
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