Studying Biodiversity to Protect the Cheetah

As 70% of Namibia’s game inhabits farmlands, assessment of the farmland ecosystem for long-term habitat viability for the cheetah and its prey is part of CCF’s primary, ongoing research. Some of the activities carried out by the CCF Eco Team include monitoring weather, game and prey habitat preferences and bush encroachment, to name a few. Here is the first report from CCF's Ecologist Katherine Forsythe. Enjoy!

Cheetah Census Camera Traps – We finished waterproofing all the cameras.

Biodiversity Study – The cameras are continuing to be moved on a 10-day basis. They have one more move after today before we plan on pulling them out early November (which will make total of 12 weeks).

Rhino Tracking –All the cameras seem to be working fine (photo). We have been taking the Eartwatchers out in the past week and it seems to be going very well. They seem to find the activity very interesting and educational. We are still having a few issues with radio signals at the moment (signals dropping out or switching directions or very weak in all directions) but we have managed to get at least one good fix on rhino 4 this week. Picnic Dam is now completely dried up.

Swing gates – CCF continues to develop the swing gates concept as a reliable and cost effective tool to protect game-fenced farmland structures from damage due to burrowing/digging animals by excluding predators from an enclosure whilst allowing the free-range movement of smaller mammals. The Team continued to check for and fix new holes around fences.

Bellebenno Giraffe Project – Aymeric and Ryan are going to start collecting feeding ecology data from the giraffes. Matti had a tree identification session with Aymeric last week, and with the help of a guidebook and some prior teaching from James, they will be able to identify trees.

Wild Boys –HiFi has continued to be seen around the Elands Pen. We have a spare camera trap also along the fence line to see if there is another male hanging around but haven’t had any sightings (or pictures) other than HiFi (photo).

Bitter bush eradication – We are starting to design an experiment to test different eradication methods for bitter bush on the Big Field. I have talked to Johan (our Farm Manager) and he has given me a list of different techniques he would like to try and use to get rid of the bush, including manual removal and a few different herbicides.


Game Counts – We had a busy week of field counts with the Earthwatch crew here. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. We have more circuit counts and a 12hr Bellebenno waterhole count planned shortly.

I think that is about it for this week. Stay tuned for the Bellebenno report coming soon!

Cheers

Kat Forsythe

Puppy Sterilization Day

On the 13^th and 14^th of October the first puppy sterilizations took place at the CCF Clinic (photo left).   

Tylee, one of our Anatolians, gave birth to these 5 puppies on 19^th August 2010.  They were born at the kraal and introduced to young goats and sheep early on in their life. The puppies are now 8 weeks old and will soon go to their new homes as working dogs.  

They will be brought to the clinic again next week to have their transponders placed and receive their first vaccinations.  The surgeries went well with Dr. Anais Herbert performing the operations and Rosie Glazier assisting her.  Many volunteers were happy to help preparing the little dogs for the procedure and to be an extra hand throughout the operation (photo - right: Sanna, a student intern from the Netherlands assisting with one of the puppies).  They recovered very well and were taken back to the kraal later in the evening.

The puppies will be placed at their respective farmers on the 23 October 2010 by our Livestock Guarding Dog Programme personnel. 

Cheetah purrs to all,

The CCF Clinic staff.

Cheetah Husbandry Update 11-17 Oct-10

All of our cats this past week are in good health, and appear thankful for the heat lift!

This week was quite interesting for two of our Centre Pen males, Ron (photo) and LittleC.  LittleC is typically the king of his pen, shared with Ron and brothers Smart and Blonde (aka Ndunge and Shunga), and tensions have been rising between the older Ron and LittleC over the past few months.  This past Monday, Ron had enough.  He snapped at LittleC’s neck, taking a chunk of fur away in his mouth, and proceeded to chase LittleC the entire length of the pen, around the yard, before LittleC ran into the fence line.  Thankfully neither was seriously injured, except maybe LittleC’s pride.  Since that fateful morning the boys have calmed down, and LittleC still tries to steal Ron’s food at feeding time… I guess we will see if he has another lesson coming to him!

Soraya, Phoenix, and Quasar are proving to be our next Star runners!  While running this past week, the keepers were amazed how fast these youngsters ran.  The keepers are eagerly awaking the return of one of our volunteer Goran to see if he can ‘speed-up’ the machine, then we can really see these beautiful creatures fully extend their strides.

Kate

 

Finding the right farms for CCF's Livestock Guarding Dogs

CCF’s Education Officer Gebhardt Nikanor, “Gebs,” just came back from visiting farmers that applied for a livestock guarding dog from CCF to protect their small livestock (archive photo - Gebs talking to a farmer). CCF evaluates farms to ensure that puppies are placed only in farms with good infrastructure, healthy animals and a full-time herder. Out of the seven farms visited, five were approved to receive livestock guarding puppies. These puppies will be given away on 23^rd of October. Before receiving puppies, all farmers are given a short training on how to raise and train the dogs.

During this trip, Gebs also conducted outreach programs to schools in Herero east, close to the farms that were evaluated. In total eight schools were visited in the area and a total of 3371 learners were talked to. The learners were from grade 5 – 9. 

Please remember that all this work cannot be accomplished without funding, and funding comes from people who, like you, care about cheetahs and believe that they deserve an opportunity to be protected from extinction. You can help by making a donation here!

Thanks!

Patricia

NamibRand female - update as of 12/Oct

The female has moved south again.  After last week's circling of Neuhof Noord, she first headed up to Neuhof Reserve on the 6th.  We are then missing a couple of days data, but when we pick up her trail again on Oct 9th, she is on Hammerstein where she remains for the 10th and 11th, while moving slowly south and east.  During the late morning on the 12th, our last point for this week she had moved onto what I believe is Gemsbokhoring.

As of 11AM yesterday, she was 12 km east of the NRNR border on roughly the latitude of the Keerweder Pan.

Rob

 

Monitoring the Reintroduced Cheetahs in Bellebenno - The Journal

Monday 04th October. Day 34.

As the last mornings since it’s hotter during the day, the girls have already moved when we come at 6 am. I am quite sure that now they move earlier than before. At the beginning, we found them in the morning, at least close to the spot where we had let them the day before, whereas now they are pretty far away (a few kms), especially on days when we think they will hunt, like today. Or maybe they move during the night but they are not used to do this because of the captivity. 

We manage to find them despite our malfunctioning equipment as they are still walking. Finally, at 8 :30 am they get a duiker after a chase that lasted less than 30 seconds. It was really impressive, even for James… Chanel got it and then Toblerone finished it. Like for the zebra they caught a few days ago (photo), Chanel seemed to teach to Toblerone how to kill…like a mum with a cub!

While they were eating, suddenly I heard lots of growling and all the Chocolates ran away from the carcass, obviously chased by Chanel. Then Toblerone came back a minute later and was allowed to eat. The rest, Hershey and Nestle, came back 20 minutes later, carefully, after watching from 50m away.  Chanel is obviously the dominant of the group. Toblerone seems to be dominant too but nevertheless under Chanel.

After eating the duiker in less than three hours, the girls rested all the day until the night.

Tuesday 05th October. Day 35.

A pretty common day! They walk in the early morning, drink at Sukkel Dam (photo) and move in the open area between Dieckman’s fence and the first road in Bellebenno --not far away from the black gate, and then rest all the day, starting to walk again at the dusk.  I did observe a few things:

First of all, Toblerone is calling while the rest of the girls are resting under a tree. It’s not a usual call as when she vocalices for the others. Instead, it is a call between purring and chirping! After talking with Kate, one of the keepers, we realize that Toblerone could be in heat! Indeed, according to Kate, the hormonal treatment for castration is 7/8 months older and it is supposed to be effective only 6 months. Who knows, maybe we will have the chance to see a mating and in few months to have cubs! But if this happens, what about the coalition? Normally, for cheetahs, only the dominant females should be in heat (in this case Toblerone and Chanel, and we wonder whether Chanel’s behavior with the duiker was an expression of heat?). Nevertheless, according to Kate, Hershey and Nestle could be in heat one day. In this case, they would leave the coalition for 2-3 days.

Chanel’s scat is very soft and today we could see a worm in the sample we collected. After asking to the vet and the keepers, it appears that we will give to all of them some de-wormers. 

This week, because of car issues, we have the Mahindra, a car that the cats are obviously  not used to. Every time they hear this car, they sit or stand up, sometimes moving into the bush. So when we have to follow them on the road, we stay quite far away to avoid disturbing them too much.

Wednesday 06th October. Day 36.

The first part of the day is really lazy! They stay on the same area as yesterday, starting resting at 8 :30! Like every day, they have some fun with some warthogs, chasing them to end up being chased by them. On the late afternoon, after setting up the «hair trap» for brown hyena, we find them walking on  the road between Sukkel dam and Kindergarten. We follow them on the road for one and a half hours and then leave them as the night comes, after 3 kms of walking!

Toblerone is still calling as yesterday but less often and lower.

Thursday 07th October. Day 37.

What a busy morning ! The busiest in a while! And moreover, in a «new area» (they have already been in the boundary of this region, but staying on the roads, not walking into and investigating the bush)! 

They walk about 5-6 kms in a really dense bush from 6 to 10 am. Maybe the densest in Bellebenno; so dense that it was hard to see and follow them 10m behind. In fact we lost them 2 or 3 times and were forced to use our equipment to find them again! This walk occurred between Kindergarten, the cattle fence and Dieckman’s fence. In this area, there is an old fence which cut the bush in two parts, except on the roads. Turns out that Nestle was alone on one side, while the others were on the other side. Nestle was calling, walking along the fence. Hershey was always walking on the other side close to the fence too, but not calling. Further from the fence and in the bush, Chanel and Toblerone were following slowly and answered to Nestle. Finally, after an hour, they managed to get back together, but when they met up, they did not groom or vocalize or even touch each other; they just kept walking! We noticed that Nestle was more aggressive toward us, growling if we were within 10-15 m –usually a normal distance. Then, they rested all the day under the shade of big bushes. Finally in the evening they came back to their «home range» in the open area, after a long walk (4 to 5 kms). Thanks to this walk, we have discovered a really nice and open area, like an oasis, with green big trees and sand (but without water).

So much walk in one day! They are probably hungry, looking for food, but they look fine, not too thin, not too tired… Unfortunately and surprisingly, we haven’t met any game during these walks ! The next meal will be enjoyed for sure!

Aymeric

Cheetah Husbandry Update 3-10 October 2010

Hi Cheetah Friends!

 

Here is the first of what we hope will be a weekly cheetah husbandry update from CCF’s cheetah keepers in Namibia. Enjoy!!!

Patricia

 

All of our cats, though a bit more lazy this past week due to the humidity, are in good health.  Below are some of the ‘highlights’ from husbandry this week.

Klein’s daily treatment continues.  At the end of the week, his lesions look much better; he has been taking his meds, and allowing Matt and Kate to spray his legs.  Merlot continues to be a supporting coalition mate.  When Klein was brought back to the pen after his recent cryo-therapy session, Merlot was there waiting to greet him with a head nudge before both ‘brothers’ walked to their favourite shady spot in the pen.

The handsome Scar boys Phil, Tony, and Mischief continue to adjust well to their new enclosure next to the Eland girls.  They enjoy running alongside the bakkie, and wait patiently for their meaty reward.  Eland girls, Padme and Bella have also shown a bit of interest in their new neighbours as well by rolling on the ground near the fence line.

The Eland girls (Sandy, Dusty, Blondi, Padme, Bella, and Samantha) are enjoying their new run area, while the other girls, Shadow and Amani continue to get their exercise chasing behind the bakkie.

Harry, Hermione, Polly, and Tiny have shared their run area with our three Stars, Phoenix, Quasar, and Soraya (photo).  The run area has again been modified/extended, as both groups of cats need more space to display their graceful skills.  Quasar especially has been able to really extend himself in the larger run area, and gives his sister Soraya a bit more competition for “Best Runner”.

Chewbaaka has enjoyed a bit of pampering this past week as he has decided to stay down at the house for the better part of the day (see photo).  So our keepers have been delivering his lunch to him, and scratching his head/neck/ears. After all the big old man deserves a little pampering.

Kate

 

 

The OK Clan growing and growing

With everything that goes on at CCF every day (visiting school groups, research, bush harvesting, teaching farm, etc., the cubs continue to capture everyone's attention, as it’s normal. So here is a more recent picture of the OK Clan. Jane tells us that it's getting hotter in Namibia as the summer time approaches, but that doesn't seem to stop this fearless foursome from running and "wrestling" as they grow bigger. Enjoy!

Patricia

What the volunteers say about feeding cheetahs at CCF

We thought you might enjoy reading some comments left by volunteers who have spent time helping us at CCF. Even though volunteers help with many tasks, it is obvious that cheetah feeding is one of the biggest thrills.

These are mostly about Klein (photo), our beautiful big boy who has been getting medication for a herpes infection on his legs. If you’d like to sponsor Klein or any of the other cheetahs under our care, please visit our Cheetah Sponsorship page here: http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=cheetah_enclosure

Alice P, Earthwatch Volunteer – Feeding the cheetahs is an once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will always remember.  I loved seeing their magnificent strides as they ran alongside the truck.   I watched old Cruise as he cut corners to make his run shorter.  I’m glad he was given chopped up meat because he’s old and his teeth aren’t as good as they used to be.  Even at his age, his is a graceful and magnificent animal as all cheetahs are. I liked the interaction between Klein and Matt as Matt sprayed Klein’s herpes with mediation.  Klein stood close to the fence and allowed Matt to spray his legs, but he let Matt know that he didn’t appreciate it very much.  I love the various vocalizations of the cheetahs, especially the one that sounds like a meow.  And while I love seeing them run like the wind, my favourite thing to see is when they lie next to each other and groom each other, purring! I will always remember CCF, the cheetahs, and the people.  Thanks to everyone for making it a wonderful, memorable experience. 

Gay H, Earthwatch Volunteer – How I wish I had more time here to learn more about the individual personalities of these exquisite cats.  Joining in the feeding activity is the best opportunity to do so and both Matt and Kate are excellent instructors. However, there may be surprises for experienced keeper Matt.  Since Klein receives special supplement embedded food, Matt states that Klein must be allowed to enter the pen first, as he always goes for the meat on the right – the doctored meat.  Not this time though – so Merlot’s meat today was more than just meat!  Thanks for a truly unique experience!

Alice P, Earthwatch Volunteer – Today I went again on the truck to feed the cheetahs.  What an exhilarating experience!  Nina seems to be affectionate because she was rubbing her face against the fence while the other girls were hissing and spitting.  I loved watching Solo keep up with the truck and run alongside while everyone else was behind the truck.  She is the best runner! Klein got his correct piece of meat today with his supplements.  He grabbed the meat on the right, which he normally chooses (except the other day he chose the nice, bloody piece on the left!). I don’t have a favourite cheetah; I think they are all wonderful.  However, if I had to choose, it would be Phoenix because he is the loudest purrer. Thank you to everyone for letting us get up close and personal with the cheetahs.

Gay H, Earthwatch Volunteer – Kudos today to Matt and Klein – Klein for being cheetah enough to take his meds.  And travelling along with the Bellebenno girls and throwing out their rewards was a terrific activity, thank you Matt!

For information about volunteering with us, please visit http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=volunteer.

I’ll be posting more comments as they come in.

Cheetah purrs to all!

Patricia

 

Monitoring the re-introduced cheetahs in Bellebenno.

Hello!

This is Aymeric Houstin, a student intern at CCF. I am in the bush at the camp site with James and Ryan, tracking the girls since the release.

Below is a journal I kept the three days Ryan and James were not with me (the 15th to the 18^th September). Basically it ‘s just a record of my feelings about the cats. I hope you enjoy it.

Wednesday 15th september. Day 15.

The girls are sleeping when I arrive (at 11H) because of the kill of an eland calf in the morning. I don’t really know these cats but my first feeling is that they are really used to people and we don’t matter of them (we are a bit over 15 meters from them). By the way, it’s quite easy to collect data and follow them but I hope they will lose this behaviour with the time and become more…wild.

At 14h as we are going for lunch, we have to go back to CCF because of car issues. So my first day of observation is just from 11 to 14h.

Thursday 16th september. Day 16.

Location for today on BBNO map : B1-C1-D1-C2-D2.

In the morning, the cats walk on the road along the fence of Franz Indongo property then go into the bush, come back on the road…several times. Finally Hershey follows a warthog coming through a swing gate and then escaping through this same swing gate. She doesn’t seem to understand the mechanism of the swing gate and how the warthog is able to go through the fence (CCF is researching the effectiveness of swing gates to allow the movement of digging animals while stopping predators from going through fences, so this is good news). She ran after this warthog but  was not really chasing. It was just an opportunity for her. She saw something running so she ran; more like a reflex. She did not really try to catch it.

My first feeling is that Chanel seems to be the most detached of the four girls. She tends to walk in the bush while the others are on the road, she likes to lie down alone sometimes.

This morning, for the first time (James told me), Hershey was aggressive toward us ; Actually, we think that we surprised her and she wasn’t expecting to see something coming through the bush and appearing 10m away from her.

These cats look fit. They rest all day long and purr often (actually more often than I thought).

After resting all day, at 17h30, Chanel tracked and killed a female kudu. According to James, so far, it is always the same tactic: Chanel kills, Hershey opens the carcass, Toblerone keeps the prey down and Nestle watches. I wonder how long we will wait to see one of the others kill something. The sooner this happens, the better. Chanel can’t be the only one hunting!

It’s surprising to see that so far, the girls’ territory is just across the cheetah pens and the camp site. Is there a link ? Or just the vegetation and the prey density is better for them where they are now? We’ll have to keep an eye on that.

Friday 17th september. Day 17.

Location for today on BBNO map : C1-D1-C2-D2.    

Early morning, we return to the carcass. The girls are still there. They have just eaten a part of the hindquarters. The kudu’s skin and meat of the kudu might be too hard. They struggle to eat. Nestle punctures the stomach when she tries to open the body. Scared by the noise, she runs off and gives up for a while! Obviously, they will need to acquire some experience! It will be interesting to see if they hunt a kudu again in the future and if they will become specialised for one or two species.

Finally at 9 they penetrated the back of the kudu but are not really eating. Are they not hungry? Don’t they like kudu (they have already eaten this meat in CCF’s pens)? Is the kudu sick? Fortunately there are no other predators in Bellebenno so these cats have all the time they want to eat and spend with the carcass. They are not in a rush; they have time to learn.

 At 13h20, Hershey starts eating the face of this kudu (cheek). Toblerone is lying down next to the carcass and doesn’t seem to care; then she seems to become interested. Some small « fights »  (swaps) between them. Toblerone waits at first, but finally bored she moves Hershey; however, Chanel comes and both of them stay in one side of the kudu, not eating, just struggling to have the kudu. Is it the expression of a dominant behavior --Toblerone chasing Hershey and then Chanel struggling with Toblerone?

After eating, for the first time since at least the release, Hershey and Chanel are grooming.

Finally, in the early evening, they give up this carcass. When they walk, sometimes, one of them loses the others and they vocalise to find the others. They appear to find comfort in being together.

Saturday 18th september. Day 1_.

Location for today on BBNO map : C1-D1-C2-D2 then C1-C2-B1-B2 then B1-B2-A1-A2 then drinking water at Sukkel dam then B2 B3 A2 A3 and back to rest all day in A1 A2 B1 B2. Everything between 6 and 10 am. Afternoon and evening quiet.

As we expected, the cats moved a lot this morning (5 or 6 km from 6 to 10 am). Sometimes running after something. They drank water at Sukkel Dam for a few minutes; Chanel more than the others. She seems to be more independent/solitary. This morning, she lies down 5 minutes while the others continue to walk and finally, the others came back vocalising. She seems to be closer to Toblerone, then Nestle and finally Hershey, in this order. Nestle seems to be the laziest.

So this morning they had water! Wild cheetahs are not supposed to drink often. This habit is probably an inheritance of their stay in captivity.

Greetings,

Aymeric