We have more data this week, and our lady has paid another quick visit to Neuhof Noord. She was there on July 23rd, and possibly on the days just before than when we have no information. From there, she crossed onto Omkyk, then headed south again, ending his week's trek on Swartmodder, early this morning.
She is currently 15km from NamibRand.
Rob
We get some very nice notes from volunteers that come to help us at CCF’s Field Research and Education Center. I thought I’d share some of these with our blog readers, as the convey the uniqueness of working with the amazing cheetah. This one is from Allie:
“I love going feeding for many reasons. I love getting to know the cats better and getting to know the people better as well. Feeding out at Bellebenno is the BEST! Matt is always kind and patient with all my questions. I’ve learned a lot on the drives there and back and it’s so much fun getting to see the cats run. I was also part of the boxing team for annuals [annual health checkups] and that was hard work, but SO amazing and rewarding. I’ve had such a fantastic time here and feeding cats has been so special. Matt and Kate have been THE BEST. I’ve grown to love so many cats here. They all have such unique personalities like Tiny, Josie’s mewing, The Stars’ purring, Klein’s patience, Solo’s attitude, and Darwin’s presence to name a few! This has been an experience I will never forget. Thanks for all the good times and great company!”
Patricia
(photo – Feeding cheetahs at Bellebenno, by Patricia)
We only have one data point from the collar this week. Hopefully that's the result of her being in mountainous terrain, rather than an indication of upcoming collar failure.
As of 16:55 on Tuesday evening, she was on Hammerstein, but just 400m south of the southern boundary of Neuhof Noord.
Rob
The female has definitely decided that the east is not as nice as the west and she spent the last week continuing to move back towards NamibRand. She remained on Zaries until 11th July, then headed for Hammerstein, where she is so far remaining. As of the early evening (19:25) on the 13th, she was just 7.2 km east of the NRNR border and 6.8 km SW of the C19.
Rob
After her great eastwards trek of last week, the female has turned around and is heading back westwards. She is however continuing to drift southwards at the same time and after leaving Kalkhugel she slipped along the southern edge of Uitkoms before entering Zaris -Oos. She then crossed the C19 and as of the evening of July 6th she was on the farm of Zaries. At that time she was 18 km east of the NRNR border.
Rob
Here is rhino 2, minus the top of her anterior horn. It broke off around mid-month, and could take up to a year to fully re-grow. It is also now believed that this female may be 1-2 years older than we previously thought, around seven years of age, rather than just five and a half.
Rob
Here is rhino 4. You can see both his ear-notch, and less clearly his horn transmitter.
Rob
Here are two images of rhino 1 captured by our cameras in June. Note he attemted to mount another rhino (presumably a female). Given the short time it took him, it couldn’t have been a successful mating. But it’s great to see him trying!
Rob
Concluding last month's images, here are rhinos 3 and 5 (5 is on the left). They simply walked past each-other without additional interactions on this occasion.
Rob
We ran the Stars and then Tiny Rohini Tallala and Polly the other day. Tiny
Rohini has a sore leg – not sure what is going on – it's the second time her
leg is sore but it looks better today. I don't think its linked to running,
but maybe to learning to live with Harry and Hermione. We also took the
Stars out to the field (photo) today and to the play tree – they did really
good. We will keep doing this to get them to learn how. They are beautiful
but not like Chewbaaka – who follows me or leads me; the Stars want to go
off into the bush so they are on long leads. It was really fun.
On the dog front, Phinda's puppies (photo) are getting big and will move to
the goat yard in a few days and will meet their first goats in the next few
days. Finn and Isha, the scat dogs, are learning well. We hope to put them
into the field to find scat along with the camera traps soon. Camera traps
were launched last week and we are collecting our first photos; we have
gotten a cheetah and a leopard.
Our International course group left a couple days ago. The High Commissioner
from Botswana was here at their farewell presentations, along with the First
Secretary of Kenya and the Regional warden of the Ministry of Wildlife for
Namibia. Our group of EarthWatchers leave tomorrow while we await Walt and
Sandra Bodley's arrival (Walt is one of our CCF USA Trustees).
Hope all have a great 4th of July in the US! No hotdogs here. Bruce and I
went to the US 4th of July event held by the US Ambassador on Friday. It was
great to see the past Namibian Ambassador to the US who has just arrived in
Namibia and is now the Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs. So, as the US
ambassador put it the other day – from the Land of the Free (as Namibia is
called) to the Land of the Brave (what the US is called) – I hope that you
all have a great 4th of July. Happy independence day.
Many cheetah purrs,
Laurie
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