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| DEON'S
DIARY SESSION 11 JULY 2008  The
De Wildt Cheetah Tracker Project has as one of its objectives the management
of cheetahs which have been relocated into Protected Areas in SA. The
sourcing of suitable release and reintroduction areas are also of importance,
and Cheeta2 found itself roaming the gravel roads of the Limpopo Lowveld.
Various Private Reserves were visited in order to establish the suitability
of these private reserves for cheetah reintroductions. Cheeta2 visited
the Karonwe Private Game Reserve, The Pidwa Private Game Reserve and
The Garonga Private Game Reserve, each of of these proving to be jewels
for future cheetah reintroductions. The Makoutsi Private Game Reserve was also visited as they have a coalition of three young 14 month male cheetahs that need to be removed and introduced to another suitable reserve in SA. During this visit Cheeta2 found suitable reintroduction reserves for at least 12 cheetahs which are in holding in the Cheetah Tracker Wild Cheetah Holding Facilities. Cheeta2 also found its way to the Kalahari, where a cheetah male which travelled over 200km’s from a reserve in Botswana was kept in a boma after it was captured in a trapcage by a farmer in the North West Province. The farmer gave us permission to collar this cheetah (Eartag CCB50) and Cheetah Conservation Botswana supplied a satellite collar for this cheetah to track its movements between SA and Botswana. This cheetah will be re-released in the area he was captured to monitor his behaviour and movements. The two cheetahs Harmonie and Madrid exchanged the Cheetah Tracker holding facility for a more luxurious two hectare spacious camp at Hagne Bush Lapa where they will remain until they are fit enough for release into a suitable protected area. Cheeta2 offloaded these two males and then rushed to Dr Peter Caldwell, the veterinarian of De Wildt with a leopard female which broke its canines in a capture cage after being captured by a local farmer. Reports on what happens to this leopard will follow in future diaries. |
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DEON'S DIARY SESSION |
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KELLY'S
DIARY 1 July 2008  About
a year and a half ago, a female cheetah was captured on a farm in the
lowveld with her two male cubs who were four months old. The family
was brought to De Wildt Shingwedzi then taken to Monate Game Reserve.
This is a small reseve where the ranger Wimpie is an expert in 're-wilding'
and monitoring young cheetahs. The mother was called Honey and the cubs
were called Blik and Sem! when Blik and Sem were old enough, Honey was
sent to Karongwe where she settled in great and has since had more cubs.
Blik and Sem enjoyed their days at Monate, became very habituated to
humans and learned to hunt like real experts. However, Monate is only
their half-way house and the time had come when Blik and Sem were adults,
and needed to be taken to a reserve where they could become part of
the metapopulation. So they were darted by Peter Caldwell of Old Chapel
and I drove them to Ka'Ingo where they were released into the boma.
There is a lovely female on Ka'Ingo, so we hope that we can report on
their cubs in a year or so!Thanks to the guys at Ka'Ingo for the pics!!! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 23 June 2008  This
week the De Wildt/McKaynine scat sniffing team headed north to Makulu
Makete and the captive release project. Diesel had a buddy in the form
of Shannon’s whippetey-type cross breed Duzi. Shannon has been
experimenting with training her dogs at home to sniff for scat. This
is giving her loads if insight into the different methods that need
to be used on different dogs and what makes a scat sniffing dog successful.
It is hoped that in the future, De Wildt will have a team of scat sniffing
dogs that can be used in the field. But for now, it is Diesel and his
apprentice Duzi and what a successful week they had! Diesel found two
scats belonging to Phoenix! It was hard work and we walked almost 20km,
but so so rewarding when Diesel puts his nose up in the air, follows
the scent and sits excitedly in front of a scat! All for a rubber ball
as a reward! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 19 May 2008  This
week the scat sniffing troop headed off to Ka’Ingo outside Vaalwater.
This reserve has introduced cheetahs through the relocation programme,
but have one cheetah that found its way onto the reserve and is not collared.
They would like to trap him to collar him and take DNA samples for biological
banking. Diesel was enlisted to try and help find a marking post where
we could set a trap. Working on Ka’Ingo had its own set of challenges
– mainly in the form of 4 lions! Luckily they are all collared and
we had a ranger with us – who was (sometimes) armed. The big excitement
happened on the last day, we were searching near an area called ‘Pride
Rock’ .... walking up a rocky rise, Diesel suddenly started to go
crazy indicating and sniffing around – he definitely had something!!!
Then, beep beep, it was the lions, getting closer – much closer,
and we were far from the car and unarmed with a ‘lion smartie’
(as Shannon called Diesel) on the end of a lead. Talk about being in a
quandary, but we decided that our lives were more valuable than cheetah
poop (yes, we did consider the options for a while!!!), then headed back
to the car - disappointed at having to leave a possible find, but happy
not to have to confront any hungry lions!!! Back at the lodge, Diesel
got to see the elephants really close up and was good as gold –
he looked, but didn’t bark!! We then had (another) lovely dinner
and glass of wine before heading off for a good nights sleep! Tick count for the week: 52 on me!!!! Love pepper ticks, how they get under socks, trousers, belts, etc in a mystery. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 12 May 2008  This
week cheeta1 headed to Makulu Makete near Alldays, with Shannon, Diesel
and myself. We were going to look for scat from Phoenix, he captive
bred female that has been released as part of an experiment to see how
well captive cheetahs adapt to being released. We spend three days crashing
through the bush, trying to walk transects, which is not as easy as
it sounds!! We eventually resorted to working Diesel off lead in some
areas as he kept getting caught up in bushes resulting in me pulling
him off the scent. He indicated strongly several times, but we found
no scat unfortunately. However, Phoenix had only been released for about
3 weeks, so there may not have been many scats lying around!Spine chilling moment: Diesel and I walked past a puff adder and didn’t even see it, my right foot swung over it’s head. See, snakes are not out to ‘get’ us!!! Tick count on me after 3 days: 27!! |
| DEON'S
DIARY 19 May 2008 Cheeta2 has once again found the time for a Tracker Dairy update. All seems well in cheetah country although we have picked up rumours of illegal killing of cheetahs in Limpopo and North West Province again. These killings are the result of predation by these cheetahs on livestock and game and farmers simply reacting in anger. Efforts will be made to infiltrate these farming communities and to put an effort into understanding and solving conflict issues.  Cheeta2
was recently involved with the relocation of three African Wild Dogs
which were born in captivity at De Wildt Cheetah Centre to the Pilanesberg
National Park. The captive born females were bonded with the wild Pilanesberg
males at De Wildt and Cheeta2 had the privilege of taking them back
to the holding facility at Pilanesberg were they will be kept until
they are ready for release. Cheeta2
also played host to the IAMS Europe, who were in South Africa, making
a promotional dvd for sponsorship to the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife
Trust. Mr Richie Pistory, Associate Director of IAMS Europe spent a
few memorable hours in Cheeta2 with Diesel the Scat Sniffing Dog. Cheetah
2 will be featured in the IAMS promotional DVD which will be featured
in Europe.Cheeta2 also recently had to transport a precious cargo consisting of five three week old cheetah cubs to O.R.Tambo International Airport. Three of these cheetah cubs were born by Caesarian section during an emergency operation. These cubs were flown to Cheetah Outreach in Cape Town by British Airways. Cheetah Outreach will be raising and training these cubs as Cheetah Ambassadors for education programs in countries abroad. This dairy session unfortunately ends with a very tragic story. Cheeta2 travelled to the North West Province on the border of the Kalahari to rescue a young female cheetah which was found injured on a gravel road near the Botswana border. Conservationists and farmers from the Bray area in North West Province staged a dramatic rescue operation to get this female cheetah to the De Wildt Cheetah Tracker Project. All indications are that this beautiful cheetah female was hit by a vehicle on purpose on this road and left as dead next to the road. After spending hours in agony next to the road, cheetah conservation supporters from the Bray area settled her into a safe and warm cheetah transport box. The Provincial Conservation Authority raced out to the farm and collected her, while Cheetah2 travelled from Brits towards the Bray area. Cheeta2 met the Provincial Conservation Authority near the town of Zeerust and rushed back to Dr Peter Caldwell, consulting veterinarian of De Wildt. Although no external injuries were found on this cheetah female, x-rays clearly showed a severed spinal cord..., she would be paralised due to this injury. Dr Caldwell made the decision to put her to sleep as she would have been in a lot of agony, and would never recover. This was extremely difficult and emotional, but everyone agreed that it was the best option. It is unbelievable that people can simply chase down cheetahs, drive over them, leave them for dead, ... just because these cheetahs might predate on a springbuck... This is very sickening, but just emphasizes the importance of the efforts of the Cheetah Tracker in changing attitudes of the farming communities were these cheetahs occur naturally. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 8 May 2008  The
captive release project has been going well and female Phoenix was released
and had made one kill! Then she started to limp... Luckily our vet Peter
Caldwell was on the reserve that weekend, so he darted her and examined
her foot. The diagnosis – a badly broken toe! We brought her back
to Pretoria to x-ray and perhaps have an orthopaedic surgeon work on
it. But after x-rays and consultation with the orthopaedic surgeon,
it was decided that the only option was to amputate her toe. The operation
was a success and Phoenix is expected to have a full recovery and be
back in the bush in about three weeks. She is definitely going to have
an easy track to identify!! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 5 May 2008  De
Wildt has entered into a partnership with some landowners who become
Cheetah Custodians. These landowners keep captive bred cheetahs that
are retired from De Wildt’s breeding programme. This frees up
some space at De Wildt, helps us financially and gives the landowners
the attraction of cheetahs on their properties. One of these properties
is Koedoesfontein in Thabazimbi in the heart of our study area. They
have two female cheetahs that are enjoying life in big camps and are
being fed delicious game meat. However, one of my research cats, Sunny,
is finding the females very attractive and spends heaps of time hanging
around outside their camps. We set a camera trap there to make sure
it was him and it certainly is! He walks around the camps every night,
scent marking, spraying on the fences and generally showing off to the
two girls. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 21 April 2008  This
week Cheeta1 and I headed to Monate Lodge near Bela-Bela with Shannon
(dog training expert from McKaynine Training Centre) and Diesel (scat
sniffing dog) on board for a scat sniffing trip. As usual, we were treated
like royalty at Monate. The scat sniffing went great and after several
hours of walking, Diesel found a small rocky outcrop that the cheetahs
were using to scent mark on! It was interesting because there were several
scats on the rocks, but Diesel totally ignored some of them and indicated
strongly at others. We trust Diesel fully and I would nearly bet my
life on the scats that he ignored not being cheetah scat, but rather
leopard or caracal. We are going to place a camera trap at the site
and see who we pick up on the photos! Attached pic: The crew “searching” for cheetah scat, from left: Cheeta1, Shannon McKay, Diesel, Kelly and Wimpie from Monate. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 4 April 2008  This
week we had a visiting film crew from Germany who were making a film
on our project for Iams. They were a great group of people and very
easy going and while we worked very hard, drove very far and had some
very late nights, it was all good fun and very productive. We spent
a day on Shingwedzi and then a day in Thabazimbi. The highlight for
me was filming Diesel doing his scat sniffing. I was a bit concerned
about working him without his trainer Shannon and about having him in
the car for a whole day with four people. But he was a real little champ,
well behaved and loved all the attention he got from those sitting in
the back seat! The scat sniffing exercise went perfect and he went straight
to the tree stood up on his back legs with front feet on the tree and
showed me exactly where the scat was. Cheeta1 was used for several new
purposes during the filming trip – one was a filming platform.
The camera was attached to the roof rack and the camera man sat on the
roof and filmed as we drove slowly through the farm! |
| DEON'S
DIARY
28 March 2008  Cheetah
2 does not only operate in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, but
also in other provinces as well. Cheetah2 found himself driving down
to the beautiful Karoo area of South Africa, to a reserve called Samara
which is near the town Graaf Reinette in the Eastern Cape. Cheeta2 was
towing a trailer with five empty cheetah crates on. The purpose of this
trip was to collect four cheetahs from Samara which were born from cheetahs
relocated to Samara a few years ago. The female cheetah called Sibella
which roams Samara has produced a record number of cheetah cubs during
the past three years (more than 18 cubs) and the last litter needed
to be removed from Samara to prevent genetic problems. A male cheetah from Mountain Zebra National Park (was relocated to this National Park by Cheeta1 during 2007) had to be collected as he was injured in a territorial fight with the resident two cheetah males. Cheetah 2 made the long 10 hour trip very comfortably and after loading the Samara cheetahs and the single male cheetah at Mountain Zebra National Park found his way heading back towards De Wildt. Back at De Wildt the cheetahs were offloaded into temporary holding camps and given a health check by De Wildt Consulting Veterinarian, Dr Peter Caldwell. Some of these cheetahs will soon be relocated to Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in the Northern Cape of South Africa. |
| DEON'S
DIARY 28 March 2008  Cheeta2
might be covered with cheetah spots, but cheetahs are not the only predators
that Cheeta2 is required to assist with. We recently received a call
from a stock farmer, (actually bordering the huge conservation area
“Elandsberg” as mentioned in a previous diary session) who
captured a leopard in a trapcage after it killed and feasted on one
of the young cattle calves. Staff of De Wildt Shingwedzi (Cheetah Tracker
Project sister organisation) were requested to collect the leopard and
to take it to the holding facility at Shingwedzi where Cheetah2 would
collect it for relocation. Cheetah2 received news that the leopard was
seriously injured and raced to the holding facility to collect the leopard
and to take it to De Wildt Consulting Veterinarian, Dr Peter Caldwell.
Well.... a huge surprised waited for Cheeta2 at the leopard holding facility. A MONSTER OF A LEOPARD!!! This is one of the largests leopards that Cheeta2 has come across in all the years working with predators. He definitely was the KING of the Rooiberg mountains and his wounds on his face and split upper lip caused by territorial fights were a clear indication of this. His wounds of war and split upper lip gave him the features of a monster, and he was instantly named “Frankenstein”. Frankenstein had a huge cut above his head and it was necessary for Peter to sew the wound up. Frankenstein is now back in the holding facility and is waiting to recover to be released. Cheetah2 convinced the rancher to re-release this magnificent leopard back into his kingdom and the rancher agreed under the condition that he be fitted with a GPS/GSM collar to be able to be tracked. Sponsors for such a collar (US$2500) are urgently sought!!! |
| DEON'S
DIARY 28 March 2008 One of the biggest challenges of the Cheetah Tracker Project is to find and evaluate the suitability of new relocation areas to reintroduce cheetahs that are captured or received from ranchers as “problem” animals. During the past few years, De Wildt has managed to relocate more than 170 cheetahs into protected Parks and Reserves in SA. The result of these reintroductions are that most of the cheetahs on these Parks and Reserves are producing offspring, which is a huge bonus for cheetah conservation, but a major headache for the De Wildt Cheetah Tracker project as we have to source suitable new areas in order to expand the current network of Parks and Reserves which can accommodate cheetahs in South Africa. Cheetah1 found his way heading towards a small rural town called Rooiberg in the Limpopo Province. Rooiberg was previously known for its huntig farms, but now-days a lot of ecotourism activities are taking place in this area. Two huge private conservation areas have been established in this area, namely the Elansberg Conservancy and Kaia Ingwe (Home of the leopard). Although these two properties are currently separated by a road, this will soon change as the two properties are due to merge, creating a large core conservation area with the possibility of expansion... Cheetah1 found the two areas to be very good suitable habitat for cheetahs and it is planned to introduce two males on Elansberg, and two males and one female onto Kaia Ingwe within the next few months. The management of the two properties are busy erecting holding bomas and updates will be posted soon regarding the cheetahs reintroductions onto these properties. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 25 March 2008  This
week Cheeta1 and I headed off to Marakele Pty Ltd. This is a contractual
National Park in the Thabazimbi area. The park is enclosed in predator
proofed fence and the cheetahs cannot get out. The manager Bradley is
keen to do a survey on the cheetahs in order to effectively manage the
cheetah population. This survey is planned to be a collaborative project
with Marakele and the De Wildt Wild Cheetah Project. Marakele is in
our core study area and it will be very exciting to have a collaboration
with a big reserve like this. This will also provide a good comparison
for our work that is happening in the same area but in unprotected areas.
|
| KELLY'S
DIARY 10 March 2008  Cheeta1
and I had a very busy week this week! We collected a cheetah that came
in from a farmer in North West, the cheetah was a nice big male and
seemed to be in good condition. He is at De Wildt and will be relocated
to a suitable reserve as soon as possible.We also made two trips to Hagne Bush Lapa. Hagne do a wonderful job of re-wilding young male cheetahs for us. One of the males had been in a big boma there to keep him moving while a broken leg healed. Peter Caldwell had put a plate in the leg and this had to be taken out, so we darted him and took him back to Old Chapel vet clinic for surgery. I then delivered a female to Hagne. She had her eye damaged in the capture cage and we are not 100% sure if she will be able to hunt effectively. She will spend some time on Hagne and if she can hunt then she will also be relocated. Then Cheeta1 and I headed north to Makulu Makete where we are running the captive release project. Bennie has been waiting in anticipation for her quad bike so that she can be 100% mobile on the farm. We delivered the quad to a very excited Bennie and she spent the rest of the day getting used to the manual gear box! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 25 February 2008  This
week Cheeta1 and I headed off to Thabazimbi. We set a camera trap to
find out of cheetah George is still in his old haunts or not. His buddy
Joss died last year and we suspect that George’s collar is either
not working or he is not coming into cell phone reception at all. We
also stopped in to check on Anatolians Charlie, Kiwi and Boleyn. Then
we investigated a complaint that turned out to be a leopard then headed
off to Kudusfontein to check up on the custodian cheetah there and to
dip and deworm them. The job was pretty easy and Ansie Engelbrecht who
looks after the cheetahs got the hang of feeding them pills wrapped
in meat on the end of a stick quickly. We then moved on to spraying
them and she is a real pro at wetting the whole cat without getting
spray in it its ears, eyes or mouth as well as not letting the cheetah
bite the end of the spray! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 11 February 2008  This
week was probably a life changing week – I turned 33 and registered
for a PhD!!! Then on Saturday morning at 4am Cheeta1 and I hit the road to collect ace vet Peter Caldwell and De Wildt field officer Luke and we all headed off to Makulu Makete near Alldays in high spirits. This reserve has a relocated cheetah called Bubbles who has 5 magnificent cubs that are nearly 18months old. Unfortunately Bubbles and the cubs have to be moved off the reserve, so we were going to dart them and take them back to holding at De Wildt Shingwedzi. Darting a female with 5 cubs was always going to be a challenge! Bubbles was wearing a collar, so we could follow her easily enough, but the cubs were not. Narinda Pentz who is the nature conservator on Makulu Makete has done an excellent job of habituating the cheetahs and even had them used to the sound of a .22 shot!! She decided to do this in anticipation of the darting in the hope that once on of them was darted then the rest would not get a fright and run off at the bang of the dart gun. It seemed to work excellently! Peter darted the cubs quickly who didn’t run too far away from each other, Luke and I ran around collecting the cubs, getting them into the shade and started on their work ups while Peter and Narinda went off to dart Bubbles. In no time at all, we had all 6 beautiful cheetahs in a line on the road in the shade and we were making a serious effort to get all the work done. We had an hour before the drugs wore off and we had to do full work ups on all 6 cheetahs: take 2 vials of blood, full measurements, 3 injections, treat dart wounds, microchip, treat eyes, keep them cool with water and fit a new collar on Bubbles. But the team worked great together and we got it all done and the cheetahs into then comfy crates and parked in the shade to recover. That evening we had a tasty festive meal in the main lodge accompanied by good wine and good company. Peter Phillip and Jane who own the reserve looked after us so well and we all went to bed in their beautiful tented camp, tired but happy and with full bellies! All photos taken by Peter Phillip – thank you!!!! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 4 February 2008  Cheeta1
and I met with a farmer called Raymund in Thabazimbi this week, he called
to say that there were cheetahs on his farm, but that he was thrilled
about it….Wow!!!! He also wanted to know what he could do for
the cheetahs in his area. I went to meet him on his farm and he showed
me a tree that the cheetahs had been using to scent mark on. We set
a camera trap and 4 days later had some pics of a lovely big male! Raymund
was thrilled!!!I then went to Marakele reserve also in Thabazimbi. Marakele is a big reserve that consists of Marakele National Park and some adjacent privately owned land that has been amalgamated to the park. Here I met with Bradley the manager of the private part of the park. They are keen to know what their cheetah population is doing and would like to do a camera trapping survey in partnership with us. It was a great day in the field working with people who are excited and enthusiastic about cheetahs and the environment. |
| DEON'S
DIARY 29 January 2008  Well,
after a good leave during December 07, it's back to work again. We have
various wild cheetah in holding which need to be relocated to reserves
in South Africa. These past few weeks in January has been spent planning
and looking for such reserves, just finding that many of these reserves
have to have cheetahs moved to prevent genetic inbreeding. Wow, it seems
as if Cheetah2 is going to be busy during the next few months relocating
these cheetahs to other reserves. South Africa does have a problem,
and that is that our relocation venues are limited and that these venues
can only sustain a certain amount of cheetah. We can thus expect to
have more wild cheetah in holding for longer periods, before suitable
relocation reserves are found.Cheetah2 relocated a adult male leopard recently (Nsele-Prince). This leopard was mentioned in a previous diary session, but had to be recaptured due to his collar not working. He was fitted with a new telemetry collar and released back to his new home. Cheetah2 recently attended a National Cheetah Conservation forum meeting in the Freestate of South Africa. This meeting addresses cheetah conservation issues in South Africa. A Wild Dog Advisory meeting was also attended. The year also started with the placement of new Anatolian Puppies (six to be exact!!!!!!). These Anatolian Dogs are used successfully to protect livestock against the onslaught of predators such as cheetahs and De Wildt in partnership with Cheetah Outreach has placed close to 20 dogs up to date. February should see Cheeta2 doing much more field work and the next diary session should be a bit more interesting. Greetings and before I forget... Compliments for 2008. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 28 January 2008  The
highlight of the week was definitely a trip up to Makulu Makete in Alldays
again. I had to deliver a female cheetah for part of the captive release
project. It hasn’t stopped raining in Gauteng for what feels like
months so the idea of some sunshine and heat was very welcome!
Poor Diesel had a very rough end of last year. He managed to somehow damage his shoulders (badly!) and was in and out of the vets for a month, he was x-rayed from every angle and he had horrible reactions to the drugs, one gave him seizures, the other gave him horrible diarrhoea. The poor little soul was looking very miserable and he lost 2kg and nearly broke my heart! But after having some joint fluid taken from his joints for analyses, things started looking better. By mid December he was looking 100% sound and early in January we started walking him again and throwing his ball. He went back to agility last week - he was nominated beginner agility dog of the year last year - so I decided it was time to get him back into the field again. So when Cheeta1 and I headed north, we were accompanied by a crazy excited Diesel dog! I didn’t work him, I just wanted him to get out again, run around and get a bit less wired and excited about being out. So after we had off loaded the cheetah into the boma and watched her settle and sorted out business on the reserve it was 6pm and was still just over 30°C, so we headed down to the river for a swim. He had such fun and came home a tired, but happy dog with no pain and limps. So we are very grateful that out little guy is back in action and ready to go again. Once he is fit again... The next morning we stopped at the boma on the way out to see how the female was settling in. Bennie was there feeding and she is rapidly becoming a real Cheetah Chick, relaxed with the cats and not squeamish about raw meat! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 22 January 2008  The
first field trip of the New Year! Wow, it was great to get back into
the bush again. Cheeta1 and I headed up north to Makulu Makete near
Alldays. De Wildt is busy with an experimental release of captive bred
cheetahs on this reserve. This study is being conducted by Nkabeng Maruping
(Bennie to her friends) through the University of Pretoria as part of
her MSc in Wildlife management. I went up to see how the project was
going and to help where and if I could. The cheetahs are in a boma being
habituated to their surroundings and people as well as quad bikes. Cheetahs
often see things like quad bikes as fun to chase and this can be dangerous.
To habituate them Bennie and Narinda Pentz (nature conservator at Makulu
Makete) are driving the quad around their camp armed with a water pistol.
If the cheetahs chase the bike they get sprayed with the pistol. The
two boys were very good and showed a slight interest in the bike, but
never chased us. Bennie and Narinda are doing a great job with the cats
and we are all looking forward to their release. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 12 November 2007  Diesel
(our scat sniffing dog) gets to work in some pretty hot, dry and dusty
conditions. He is also being taught to ride on the front of a quad bike
where it will be windy and we will be riding past thorn trees and into
oncoming insects (we get some big ones!). His eyes have taken a bit
of strain with the dust on the last few trips and with the quad being
used in the field soon, Shannon became a bit concerned that his eyes
may need some protection. Seems there is nothing you can’t get
these days, so Diesel is now the proud owner of a pair of Doggles!!
Not only will they protect his eyes from the dust and elements, but
they are 100% UV protected AND very cool!!!! And we all know that it
is not what you are doing that is important, but rather how you look
when you are doing it. |
| DEON'S
DIARY 30 October 2007 Cheetahs, Leopards and Anatolians ... This is what Cheetah 2 (and also Cheetah 1) has been up to. Once again, Cheetah 2 was privileged to see the beautiful sunrise a week ago when we left Pretoria before sunrise to Shayamanzi Leopard Project in the mystical Waterberg of Limpopo. “Zorro” a young leopard has been in holding here for the past 8 months and the time had come for us to collar and relocate him to a suitable conservation area where he would hopefully stay and not come into conflict with cattle and game ranchers. “Zorro” spent three months in a one hectare camp at Shayamanzi while we tested a new gps/gsm collar on him. Well, after sedating him, we realized that the collar was not really leopard proof as he managed to damage the belting...which as a matter of interest is made of Kevlar (bulletproof material). We fitted a new collar to “Zorro” crated him and loaded him on the trailer. The journey to Marakele National Park was without any problems. Marakele National Park is a 100 thousand hectare conservation area with many mountains which makes this an ideal leopard area. “Zorro” was released at the foot of the Kransberg Mountains in the park and he stepped out of his transport crate within seconds after the gate was opened.  The
De Wildt Cheetah Tracker does not only relocate cheetahs and leopards
which are caught as “problem animals" but also has a program
in partnership with Cheetah Outreach, through which Anatolian Livestock
Guarding Dogs are placed on selective ranches to prevent damage caused
by these predators to livestock farmers. During the past two weeks another
three Anatolian puppies were placed in the Alldays area of Limpopo.
The three puppies “Fox”, “Gia” and “Pego”
were introduced to the respective goat and sheep which they have to
protect against these “nasty” predators. “Pego”
was placed on a ranch which borders on the Mapungubwe Transfrontier
Conservation area to limit damage caused by predators which occur in
this conservation area.The success of the cheetah reintroduction program and National Cheetah Meta-Population project is reliant on the expansion of the population of cheetahs which are in protected areas, in order to establish and maintain a viable and genetically healthy cheetah population in these protected areas. Cheetah 2 found its nose pointed towards the grassland areas of the North West Province near the town of Klerksdorp. The reserve (Metsi Pepa) is 8900ha with the possibility of expanding up to 21000ha and thus an ideal area for the reintroduction of cheetahs. This will be the first reintroduction of cheetah into a reserve in the North West Province of South Africa. It is envisaged that this reintroduction will take place in mid 2008. Watch this space for more information. A reserve that recently was approved for the reintroduction of cheetah recently received two cheetahs that were delivered by Cheetah 2. The reserve called “Entabeni” is situated in the Waterberg and is approximately 7000ha. Entabeni is dropping fences with a government conservation area which are their neighbors and this will double the size of the reserve. The owner and management of Entabeni were very proud of the two cheetahs, one male and one female. GPS/Satellite collars were fitted to the two cheetahs and this also presented the opportunity for the staff of Entabeni to meet the two cheetah closely and personal. Cheetah 2 is doing a lot of traveling and subsequently was handed over to the Sasol Team to have it serviced and to have various tests done as per the fuel trials. During this period, I used Cheetah 1 (which in normal cases is driven by Kelly, but she was on leave in Kenya). Cheetah 1 was fortunate to take the long road up to Makulu Makete where the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust is doing a research project to document the process to introduce captive born cheetah back into the wild. This project will have very important spin-offs when cheetahs are reintroduced into countries where they have become extinct, such as India, Iran etc. The De Wildt/Makulu Makete project will for the first time give scientifically based guidelines for such introductions. Cheetah 1 delivered the two cheetahs (Scruff and Bones) to Makulu Makete where they were put into a boma. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 22 October 2007  This
week Cheeta1 and I took the long trip down to Mountain Zebra National
Park in the Eastern Cape. I delivered two male cheetahs into the boma.
They walked out of their crates nice and relaxed after their long trip
and straight away tucked into the springbok carcass that was left out
for them. The next morning I went out with one of the rangers, a man
called Surprise, to look for the other cheetahs that have been introduced
onto the reserve. We got the signal of a female called Nixi, so we started
following her. Well, it turns out that Nixi is a mountain climbing expert!
We walked after her for about 3 ½ hours, up and down massive
mountains, going on all fours to get up and sliding down the other side
on our bums. The signal from her collar would be so strong that we would
stop and quietly look around trying to spot her, then the signal would
move away again. We never once got a glimpse of her! She eventually
ended up in a gorge that was thickly vegetated and we had no hope! We
decided that Nixi had won this one and headed back to Cheeta1 (another
2 hours of walking!!). The whole way back we kept monitoring Nixi’s
signal, and she went up the next mountain and disappeared behind it
too! |
| DEON'S
DIARY 17 September 2007 When cheetahs or leopards climb into traps on farms, the De Wildt Cheetah Tracker Program has the task of fetching, holding and relocating. The cheetahs are all relocated according to a plan to establish a genetic viable population of cheetahs in reserves and parks in SA, while some of them are released right back onto the ranch where they were captured with the permission of the ranch owner as part of the long-term Cheetah Census and Research program of the Cheetah Tracker Team. Most ranchers are really giving great cooperation in cheetah conservation, but from time to time we do stumble across ranchers who absolutely feel nothing for these majestic animals and try and trade them onto the black-market. In some cases the cheetahs get injured and then cannot be sold to black-market traders... the De Wildt Cheetah Tracker Team then gets called to collect these cheetahs, and what is worse is that the rancher still expects to be compensated from the National Cheetah Compensation Fund... I recently released a beautiful cheetah female (called Elouise) back onto the farm where she was captured (by the neighbor). This was made possible by Mr Leon Steenkamp who sponsored the telemetry collar fitted to her, as well as the kind landowner. She was just out of her transport box, when my phone went crazy. I answered and it was an official from the North West Nature Conservation Department informing me of a cheetah which was captured in the far area of the Kalahari. The official offered to collect the cheetah and meet me halfway. Cheetah 2 took the long road to Groot Marico, a town halfway between De Wildt and Bray, and I met Vasti of Conservation there with a heavily sedated cheetah. She informed me that his leg was injured and that it happened the day before according to the rancher…. Peter Caldwell, our consulting veterinarian was waiting for me at his consulting rooms. The male cheetah was in a bad condition and barely alive, not even putting up much of a fight when we placed him in a holding cage. Xrays showed that his back leg was completely broken. Peter did a four hour operation on the cheetah and inserted a plate. When Peter opened the leg he found that the bones were already forming calluses and that the muscles were in spasm. His opinion was that the leg was broken for at least 7 days... and that the cheetah was in excruciating pain. Xrays of the cheetahs chest also showed that he received a heavy blow on his side and that his one lung had collapsed. He also had a air pocket under his heart due to the blow to his chest. This cheetah was not captured using a trap cage... All indications were that he was man-handled, most probably trampled by a vehicle driving over him... On
the brighter side of things, Cheetah2 relocated two male cheetahs (Mandla
and Savuti) to Mokolo Nature Reserve in Limpopo this week together with
a sexy female cheetah called Isis. They are in holding in a boma and
will be released onto Mokolo within the next two months. A beautiful
male leopard named Nsele-Prince was released onto a game ranch near
Vaalwater recently.To end this week's diary, some more bad news for cheetah conservation. It seems that some Game Capture Operators have realized that cheetahs can be chased into game capture bomas by helicopter. We received a young adult female cheetah with three 10 months old cubs this week from the Lephalale area of Limpopo. The rancher made the remark that he was going to use the money received from the Compensation Fund to pay the helicopter pilot... This is totally unethical and highly illegal. This rancher will not be compensated and the female with cubs will be re-released onto a 20000 ha ranch not far from where she was captured, pending on the sourcing of funding for a gps/gsm collar for her... |
| KELLY'S
DIARY |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 1 October 2007  This
week Cheeta1 and I headed off to the northern Drakensberg in Kwa-Zulu
Natal for the annual Southern African Wildlife Management Association
symposium. The symposium was held at Didima near Cathedral Peak. I presented
a paper on Diesel, our scat sniffing dog. It was well received and we
got lots of questions and interest from various fields of conservation.
The symposium is always a fantastic event, not only do I learn loads,
but it has become a bit like a family reunion. There are a handful of
people that attend annually and this is the only place that we ever
cross tracks. Apart from the formal symposium, the conservation debate
and ‘shop talk’ continued late into the night after dinner.
Speaking of dinner, the food was brilliant and we were fed to within
an inch of our lives. Luckily I packed my bicycle and got up at 5am
to ride in the mountains before the talks every morning – stunning!
There was also an excursion up Mike’s Pass on the last morning.
Cheeta1 was in high demand as a lift! At the top of the pass we were
welcomed with a spectacular view of the Drakensberg and had a fascinating
talk on fire ecology and the system in general. After that is was goodbyes
and we hit the long road home to Gauteng. |
DEON'S
DIARY 17 September 2007 The Good, the bad and the ugly... This is basically how my life has been during the past two weeks!!!! We have been fortunate enough to collar and release two cheetah males in the Hoedspruit area of Limpopo during the past week. These two beautiful prime cheetah males found themselves uninvited inside the security fence of the Hoedspruit Airforce Base. This led to some direct conflict with the two resident relocated cheetahs (Relocated to control antelope and warthogs on the runways, but that another story) and we were forced to capture and evict the two strangers from the Airforce Base. The local Environmental Officer of the Airforce managed to capture the two cheetahs and I rushed down to utilise the opportunity to collar and release the cheetahs onto a nearby game ranch where they were seen a lot. The two boys were released late in the afternoon and they unceremoniously fled into the thick bush, one of the cheetahs nearly taking out a huge thorntree while looking at us over his shoulder while running away at full speed... The next day the gps/gsm collars showed that they kept on running east and were in the Klaserie Private Game Reserve. They have been there ever since...  A
rancher of the Thabazimbi area of Limpopo called and reported that he
had managed to capture an adult cheetah female and three of four cubs
which were causing damage to the antelope on his farm. Cheetah2 rushed
through to the ranch in Thabazimbi and found the terrified female with
three cubs in a small capture cage. The remaining cub was on the other
side of the fence and was calling frantically to the family in the trap.
I managed to get the three cubs into transport crates and decided to
leave the mother in the trap as bait to capture the remaining cheetah
cub, which would have died if we just left him behind. The sight of
the female and her three cubs in the small trap was heart sickening
as they bounced about frantically trying to escape. The neighbor to
this rancher called me and expressed his anger in the capture and removal
of these cheetahs. The removal of cheetahs from ranchlands is not what
the Cheetah Tracker project wants to promote, but it is the last option
when ranchers threaten to shoot or even illegally sell cheetahs. I negotiated
with the rancher who captured the cheetahs that we would fit a gsm/gps
collar on the female and released her. The unhappy and angry neighbor
insisted that she be released onto his farm as she has co-existed there
for a few years without any conflict. The last cub was captured in the
trap the day after we removed the first three cubs. At that stage the
adult female was seriously dehydrated due to excessive heat and we had
to stop at the local veterinary clinic to give her a drip. She has grown
strong and will be released within the next week. The four cubs are
18 months and are just about to reach independence. They will be relocated
into Parks and Conservation areas in South Africa. The illegal trapping and trading in predators seem to be increasing. A rancher of the Vaalwater area of Limpopo called me recently offering a leopard which he captured in a trap cage for sale. The sale of such leopards is highly illegal and we off course made him aware of this fact. The rancher later called to say that he had sold the leopard to a Zoo in the North West Province and that we should not collect it. This information was passed over by us to the Police Services and I hope they catch this unscrupulous rancher. Such predators which are sold on the black-market either spend the rest of their lives in captivity or are illegally hunted in infamous “canned hunting” practices. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 17 September 2007  At
short notice, we heard that BassAir was able to dart wild cheetahs Conrad
and Bassie to change their collars as the batteries were going flat.
So Saturday morning I was up at 2:30am - tough after having SA teach
England a lesson in rugby till 11pm the night before!! I collect Peter
Caldwell at Old Chapel Veterinary Clinic and we headed north to Merriepan.
Vossie Lotter who owns the farm had kindly offered us his landing strip
as a home base. I don’t think he anticipated a chopper, cesna,
game capture crew and the Wild Cheetah Project all at 6am! But he was
amazing, helpful and enthusiastic. The darting went brilliantly with
John flying the chopper very low over the thick bush with a bit of wind
and Peter doing some serious sharp shooting with his dart gun! Conrad
and Bassie were HUGE, so lean and muscular - beautiful, strong wild
cats! And they were in excellent condition. Even Peter was impressed
and he has immobilised more cheetahs than probably any body else on
the planet. As usual all the landowners were involved and got the opportunity to touch the cats, Deon gave a morphology chat, loads of photos were taken and a general atmosphere of excitement hung in the air. Conrad and Bassie were released back onto the farm once they were recovered and the team all rushed off in different directions to continue the weekends excitement: Peter went to a birthday party on a game farm, Deon went to October fest and I went to Joburg Day (live concert of SA bands). Think there were some very tired members of the Wild Cheetah team on Sunday! Thank you to everyone who made the event such a success: the landowners for allowing us free access to their properties and for allowing us to release the cats again, John and everyone at BassAir for safe flights and good organising and Peter for being a great shot and brilliant vet! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 10 September 2007 I have not been doing any exciting field work or major trips over the past few weeks – I have been focussing on writing a paper on our relocation programme. I presented the work at the SCB conference a while ago, and now a book will be published on “the re-introduction of top order predators” and our work will be a chapter in it. So lots of literature searches, data analyses, number crunching late nights and early mornings, not much for an exciting diary entry. But I did get to take a bit of a walk down memory lane and reminisced a little over some of the cheetahs we have got in over the past few years:  Charlie’s
Angel: was caught on the farm Charlestown, thus her name! She
was an old female caught by an even older farmer. He did everything
wrong, used the wrong type of cage, used a piece of meat as bait, and
he caught her!!!! He was so happy about it and so scared that she would
escape that when we got there he had the cage door chained closed and
padlocked with a lock that would have kept a rhino in!!! Bangles:
Deon got the call and went to collect him. The poor guy had been caught
and tied up using ropes around his legs and neck, he was terrified.
Deon got him back and immobilised and the ropes that were tied so tight
were removed. The ropes left marks on his legs, thus his name, Bangles.
Bangles was fine and relocated and is still doing great!!There are so many stories about our relocated cheetahs and I really enjoyed going through the database and remembering all the stories that often started out tragic and ended so happily! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 20 August 2007  One
of many things I love about my job is working with Diesel on the scat
sniffing. It is very rewarding and often hysterically funny. Shannon
is also so easy to work with, she is easy going, knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
It was Shannon's idea to get Diesel riding on a quad bike to help cover
the large areas that comprise our study area. Then Pierre Labuschage
from Hagen Bush Lapa came to the party and generously loaned Diesel
a quad bike. I then took over my husband Daniel’s tool shed while
he was on a field trip... I used his jig saw, angle grinder, drill and
electric screw driver and built a nice sturdy platform for the front
of the bike for Diesel to stand on. Diesel was then taught to jump up onto the platform for a treat and in no time he was leaping up and down excitedly like a bunny on Red Bull at even the slightest mention of getting onto the platform. We then started doing it with the engine running – no problem! Now we are driving around the garden while Diesel sits on the front like a real little king of his castle. |
| DEON'S
DIARY 20 August 2007 Cheetah2 has kept me from spending much time in front of the keyboard of my laptop. During the past few weeks since my last diary entry (wow, has it been that long ... sorry!!!!) I have traveled widely throughout the cheetah distribution range. Various new nature reserves have enquired about the possibility of reintroducing cheetahs and a lot of time was spent driving to these reserves and assessing the possibilities. Two new reserves will be receiving some of the “problem” cheetahs that ranchers have captured during the past few months and handed over to us for relocation. One female cheetah and two males will be going to “Mokolo Nature Reserve”, a 8000ha reserve in the western Waterberg area, and one female and one male to Entabeni Game Reserve, a 20000 ha reserve also in the eastern Waterberg area of Limpopo. Two more Anatolian Livestock Guard Dogs were recently placed on ranches to prevent damage from predators to livestock. These placement are very soecial as it is the first Anatolians to be placed with cattle.!!!! This trial with the cattle is very important as there are many cattle ranchers in the cheetah distribution area. If we can prove the effectiveness of Anatolians with cattle, many cattle ranchers will be able to obtain Anatolians to prevent damage to calves. This will definitely have a positive spin-off to predators such as cheetahs. Conflict with predators is still an ongoing struggle with ranchers, even in areas where we have been very active in supporting ranchers with assistance. Recently one of our collared relocated leopards (“ZAR”) was found not to be moving. “ZAR” could be tracked over the web, as he was fitted with a gps/gsm tracking collar. I identified the ranch where he was last sending a signal from, and approached the rancher. He was very surprised when I asked him when last he saw a leopard on his farm and whether it was collared. He admitted that he captured a leopard in a cage trap and shot it, because it was capturing his cattle. He only saw it was collared after he shot it. He then put the collar on the veranda of his house, not thinking that any-one would pitch up looking for it ... Various leopards have been relocated on a farm called Shayamanzi in the Waterberg area recently. One of the leopards (Zeon) was released while a SABC documentary was shot. This release, with very good shots of Cheetah2 in the background will be featured on a local wildlife program called WILD Ltd during 2008. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 13 August 2007 This week is a short week due to Woman’s Day public holiday, but it doesn’t mean that the week was any less eventful!! Everything started with a phone call from a reserve manager in Thabazimbi saying that he had reports of a cheetah that had been hit by a car and that there was apparently another cheetah with it. We were concerned that it was one of our collared cats so Deon arranged a plane and I left at the crack of dawn the next morning to look for the cheetah. The staff on Atherstone had spent the whole of the previous day looking for the injured cheetah and eventually found it late that evening and had to euthanize it as it had a badly shattered leg and its back legs were not working. He was a beautiful young male and was not one of our collared cheetahs. We can just hope that his buddy does ok on his own. What a terrible accident and a waste of a stunning young cat. Then Deon sms’d from the plane to say that cheetah Joss was in the same place as he was during the last tracking session….not good news. So I drove to the area and walked towards the signal. I realised that this was not good news because as we got closer the signal didn’t move. The bush was quite thick and visibility not good. I was also not sure what I was looking for… Eventually I found the remains of Joss along with his collar. This is very sad because we have known George and his buddy Joss for many years. But on the up side, Joss was getting on in years and must have been nearing 9 years old, which is a good age for a wild cheetah. I also think he died of something natural as he spent nearly all his time on cheetah friendly property. I will miss Joss and I had grown to know him well over the years. Then to add to the week, I was out jogging with scat sniffing dog Diesel this morning. We jog most mornings to keep him fit for his job! But this morning a huge Boer bull came out of an open gate and was on Diesel before I knew what happened. He was so massive and just pushed Diesel into the tar. I was screaming for help trying to pull the dog off Diesel, spraying pepper spray into his face and kicking the big dog. It was unreal, I would see the orange spray trickling out the corners of the big dog’s eyes and he just carried on. Eventually the owner came out and we managed to get the dog off. Diesel also slipped his lead and ran down the road which helped. We are both a bit shaken, Diesel has some clumps of hair missing, I have road rash on my knees from falling, but the worst is the pepper spray. I was trying not to get it on Diesel, but some did and some got onto me and the two of us were quite red, swollen and burning. Peter Caldwell gave some good remedies and we are both ok now. Just had a big fright and are very thankful that Diesel not hurt. Hope the weekend is less eventful!!!! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 7 August 2007  When
Luke went flying to look for our collared cats last week, he only got
signal from one of the coalition of two cheetahs called Bassie and Conrad.
We were not sure where the other one was and were a bit worried, so
I went to Thabazimbi and set a camera trap on the farm Merriepan where
I have photographed Bassie and Conrad frequently. When I arrived on
Merriepan, I realised that everything had changed: fences were pulled
down, the house was being re-vamped and roads had been cleared. I stopped
and spoke to some men that were working on a fence and they said that
the farm had been sold. I asked about the area where I usually put my
camera trap and they said that that still belonged to “the other
man”. So off I went and set my camera trap and decided that I
should go see the new owner and let him know what has been happening
on his new farm. I met with Mr Vossie Vos on his other farm and he was
very interested in out work and gave me permission to carry on working
on the property even though he owned it now – fantastic!!! We
got chatting about the Merriepan and it turns out that the place where
I have been putting my camera trap doesn’t belong to who I thought
it belonged to and that I have for the past few months been accidentally
“trespassing” on someone else’s farm!!! Luckily Vossie
knows the owner and was going to see him and explain to him, he apparently
does know about the camera trap, and Vossie said that it would not be
a problem! Farmers are so understanding like that!!!! On the way out
of Vossies farm, I saw the most amazing murals on his dam wall –
lovely, see the pic!!! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 23 - 27 July 2007  Monate
Private Game Reserve has been a fantastic partner for many years and
they do an excellent job in re-wilding any young cheetahs that we get
in through the relocation programme. Wimpy called from Monate this week
to say that a young male on the reserve was limping and had stopped
hunting. So on a chilly morning, I arrived at Old Chapel Vet Clinic
and Peter Caldwell, Janell, myself and a truck load of equipment headed
up to Monate in Cheeta1 to dart and evaluate the cheetah. As usual,
we had to work quite hard to find the cat, but as soon as we got a visual,
Peter got the dart in and the job was done quickly and efficiently.
There was nothing obviously wrong with the cheetah’s leg, but
the shoulder appeared to have some muscle wastage. The cheetah was loaded
into a crate to be taken back to Peter’s practice for a full series
of ex-rays. He should be fine and back roaming Monate very soon. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY
16 July 2007  This
week Deon and I headed off to Shayamanzi to collar and release two leopards
with the help of Peter Caldwell and Janel of Old Chapel Vet Clinic.
One was caught as a problem animal by a farmer, she was collared and
released. The other needs to go through a re-wilding process which will
happen at Shayamanzi. Jannie Parsons, the owner, has invested a huge
amount in the leopard project and has built camps especially designed
for the rewilding of leopards. It is always great to work at Shayamanzi
as we are greeted like family members and are always treated to good
cup of coffee and a great lunch – thanks Issy!!!! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 2 - 6 July 2007  The
Society for Conservation Biology held its annual meeting in Port Elizabeth
this year. This is a huge international conference with more than 1500
delegates from all fields of conservation. I presented a paper on our
relocation programme as well as a poster on monitoring cheetahs on farmlands.
The paper on relocations is going to be a chapter in a book on the Re-introduction
of Top Order Predators – very exciting! The conference was so
well organised with lots of social events that allowed for networking
opportunities. The Nelson Mandela Metro threw a beach party for the
SCB – it was unbelievable!!! They made an area under a bridge
into a huge marquee with great food, entertainment and an open side
onto the beach. The whole conference was great – I met loads of
people and learned so much. Picture credit to Maarten Strauss |
| DEON'S
DIARY 28 June 2007  A
leopard named “Zeon” was collected from a farm in the Alldays
area of Limpopo. The Tracker team is currently conducting research to
establish whether the term (the cat comes back” also applies to
wild cat species such as the leopards. This is extremely important to
figure out as leopard relocations are currently been done frequently
through out South Africa with various results and outcomes. The Tracker
Team in partnership with Shayamanzi Leopard Project in the Waterberg
of Limpopo to investigate the effectiveness of the release of such leopards
back into ranchland areas. The leopard was released with a brand new
gps/cell collar onto the Shayamanzi farm. The release was filmed for
“Bush Radar” a local SABC2 program, Tracker 2 was featured
extensively. Tracker 2 then had to drive to a ranch in the Bray area of the Kalahari to check up on the Anatolian “Joe”. Wow, what an isolated area……. 252 km’s of corrugated and sandy gravel road saw Tracker 2 carefully driving to Joe’s farm. This road was too much for the brand new tyres of Tracker 2 and roadside repairs had to be made. In any case, the Anatolian “Joe” was found to be in good health. The Waterberg area saw the spotted bodywork of Tracker 2 driving to a 8000 ha ranch which was interested in re-introducing cheetahs back onto the property. By this time the residents of the small town of Vaalwater (which is on route to the Waterberg area) have got accustomed to the spotted car and they are now more interested in the next adventures of Tracker 2 when I have to stop for a drink etc. In any case, the new reserve is excellent for a group of cheetahs and it is anticipated that Tracker 2 will be taking a female and two males to the reserve before the end of July. Tracker 2 has done over 30000km’s traveling for the conservation of cheetahs in SA. Up to date Tracker 2 has proven to be a excellent vehicle to drive, even on the worst roads. The new tyres that were fitted are much more reliable on the gravel roads and I don’t have to be to worried about punctures any more. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 12 June 2007  At
the South African Wildlife Management Association Symposium a while
ago, I won the prize for the best presentation and was given the opportunity
by WWF to attend a short course of my choice at the Southern African
Wildlife College at the Orpen Gate of the Kruger National Park. The
SAWC is a fantastic facility and is an interesting mix of university
and bushveld lodge. I chose the course on GIS (Geographical Information
Systems), this is a software package that allows you to analyse your
data spatially and create informative maps. I spend the week at the
SAWC and learned tons, this is going to change the way we approach our
research! I also made some of good friends from a diverse selection
of conservation backgrounds: Peace Parks Foundation, Gauteng conservation,
a Cape Peninsula Baboon project, National Parks, reserve managers and
a sociologist/anthropologist. We spent many evenings around the camp
fire with a glass of wine listening to spotted hyenas calling and solving
environmental problems from elephants to global warming! |
| DEON'S
DIARY 12 June 2007 During this week Cheetah Tracker 2 headed into the western section of Limpopo Province towards Ellisras and Thabazimbi. Anatolian Livestock Guarding Dog issues were to be addressed. Firstly one of our 12 month old Anatolians called Beska was showing some undesirable habits and this had to be sorted out immediately. Two new Anatolians (Bravo and Charlie) were placed at two stock farmers in the Ellisras and Thabazimbi area. Cheetah 2 also received four brand new off-road tyres (hopefully no more punctures) as well as a Bluetooth cellular phone set which will ensure that we can talk on our cell phones and remain legal. A group of the Mabula Game Ranchers Study Group was also given a talk about responsible Predator Control and Management. Cheetah 2 with its cheetah spots provided much entertainment to the Study Group. The ranchers were very impressed with the sample of GTL fuel which I showed them. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 5 June 2007  After
leaving the SAWC, I collected some wild caught cheetahs that were being
held at Moholoholo and Hoedspruit Cheetahs. With the five cheetahs on
the trailer, Cheeta1 and I headed from the warm lowveld to the cold
rainy highveld. The cheetahs were safely delivered at De Wildt Shingwedzi
where they will wait to be relocated. The next day I headed off to the
Alldays area for the Shashe-Limpopo Predator Research Group (SLPRG)
meeting. This group focuses on the six large predators that occur around
the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers where South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Botswana meet. Biologists from all three countries get
together once a year to share information and discuss conservation strategies.
This year the meeting was held in South Africa at Little Muck. The area
is really beautiful with rocky koppies and a stark dry environment.
We heard spotted hyenas nearly every night and I heard lions once. We
got to see elephants and brown hyenas as well as the introduced pack
of wild dogs. We worked hard all day and it is fantastic to network
with the cheetah projects in the other two countries! |
 DEON'S
DIARY29 May 2007 The Cheetah Tracker 2 vehicle was involved in some predator releases during this week. We found ourselves collaring two beautiful cheetah males which were to be released into the Witwater Private Game Reserve in the Waterberg of Limpopo Province. These two males were confiscated nearly two years ago from a unscrupulous wildlife trader who had these two males earmarked for the blackmarket trade. The two males were darted by our consulting veterinarian Dr Peter Caldwell and soon found themselves with a brand new radio tracking collar on each of the cheetahs. We decided not to return them to the temporary holding enclosure, but to wake them up in the middle of a Serengeti type landscape filled with impala and blesbuck. What a wonderful site to see these two cheetah waking up and realizing that they have been dropped in cheetah heaven……………….!!!! Tracker 2 also found itself slowly driving up a serious offroad track to get up to some leopard enclosures right on top of the Waterberg mountains. These camps are situated on Shayamanzi, a private leopard conservation project, where young leopards are rewilded for eventual release back into suitable conservation areas. We released a young leopard female called “Zell” into on of the holding camps. “Zell” was born from a wild leopard female (“Zizi) which we had in holding a while ago. We released the female leopard “Zizi” but she abandoned this cub and we had to recapture “Zell” and keep her in captivity until she was ready for rewilding and release. “Zell” was very anxious to get into her new 1,5 hectare camp. Unfortunately she had a close encounter with the electric fence which stunned her for a while. She proved to be very tough and ran into the dense bush. This is her first steps to freedom. Tracker 2 also re-visited the Hagne Reserve where the four cheetahs Dozi, Shockwave, Savuti and Mandla were released from the boma last week. Unbelievably they managed to slip back into their boma and were waiting for their meals to be provided as it was done in the past...It was time to get hard with these boys and their rations were cut off immediately. If they wanted food they would have to brave the unknown and step out of the boma to catch a juicy impala. One of the Anatolian Guard Dogs “Beska" was not behaving himself in the Lephalale area. I visited him (and got a puncture on the way there) to assist the farmer with some solutions. I then drove to Lephalale town to have my puncture fixed and found many farmers and hunters staring at me in Tracker 2... hey, must be the branding... a giant cheetah (tracker branded vehicle) in the middle of town.!!! |
 KELLY'S
DIARY29 May 2007 After a week of data analyses and preparing for the Society for Conservation Biology Conference that is to be held in Port Elizabeth later this year, it was time to get out into the sunshine and brave the cold front with a little field work. So I loaded up Diesel and all our equipment and set off in Cheeta1 to collect Shannon McKay (our excellent dog trainer) and off to Thabazimbi we went for a scat sniffing trip. The idea of this trip was to work in areas that we know cheetahs move in but where we don’t know where and if they are scent marking. Day one was a lot of hard work for very little reward, we walked approximately 10km and Diesel only got his first find just before dark. We both felt sorry for him because he was working so hard and not getting any reward, but the best of all was that he worked enthusiastically throughout the entire day. It was luckily not too hot, but the conditions were very dry and dusty and by the end of they day we were all filthy and exhausted. We headed back to Atherstone to the rustic Summerfield Camp that I love so much. However, it was absolutely freezing and temperatures dropped to -5 deg Celsius that night (brrrr). Summerfield has no electricity and hot water is made with a donkey boiler, so Shannon and I got a big fire going in the boma and used Cheeta1 as a wind break. We all huddled around the fire drinking coffee with a splash of Old Brown Sherry in it. Diesel is very sensitive to the cold, so he got his own camp chair in front of the fire and curled up on it wearing his Spider Man jacket. Bed time was a welcome for all of us, but especially Diesel who could hardly keep his eyes open and was a bit miserable in the cold. We climbed under the duvet with me and spent the night there – we were warm!!!!  The
next day it was back out for more scat searching. Wow, what a bumper
day!!! Diesel found five scats and he even appears to be recognising
the scent of spray. He gives a small indication for it, but then just
carries on with his scat mission. We were absolutely thrilled with how
well he worked!! On the way home the poor little guy was exhausted. He gets very clingy when he is tired and just wants to lye on some ones lap. Unfortunately for him, I fit a cargo net between the front seats to keep him in the back (both for when he wants to socialise with us and for in case we need to break hard). He was so funny, he sticks his snout through the webbing squashing his whole face and stares enviously into the front of the car – he had us in hysterics!!!  Wildlife
sighting of the week: five white rhinos at a watering point –
very relaxed and curious about us!PS: we drove past the Mount Hope School that Byron delivered bike parts to a few weeks ago – and all the kids were riding round on their bikes!!!!! PPS: thanks to Shannon for taking all the pics of this trip! |
 DEON'S
DIARY24 May 2007 Diary
updates have not been my strong point during the past two weeks. This
can most probably be blamed on spending many hours in the Cheetah 2
Tracker vehicle and not much time in the office. The past two weeks
included not just working on cheetah issues as part of the Cheetah Tracker
project but also attending to some vulture , Anatolian Guard Dog and
Leopard issues. This found the Cheetah Tracker 2 driving into the far
north of the Limpopo Province to collect two injured vultures from the
largest Cape Vulture Colony in the Blouberg Nature Reserve. We also
fitted a GPS/GSM device with a backpack to one very angry adult vulture
in order to monitor the movements of vultures from this very important
colony. Within two days after the release of this vulture, her cellphone
device was calling us from deep in Botswana…….. Incredible.!!!!!!! As reported by Kelly in her diary, we also had to treat a wild cheetah female for some type of skin infection. After she received treatment from our vet, I collected her and took her back to the wild cheetah holding facilities near Bela Bela in the Limpopo Province. Here we fitted her with a GPS/GSM device and this week we released her back onto ranchlands, within her previous range which we have been monitoring for the past year. Her new high tech cell collar will give us a much better and detailed understanding of the movements of female cheetahs on ranchland areas. This cheetah, fondly called “1st Lady” as she was our first collared cheetah will hopefully stay out of trouble and trapcages...!! The De Wildt Cheetah Tracker Project also believes prevention is better than cure... and therefore we linked up Cheetah Outrech, with our sister project in the Western Cape Province to provide Anatolian Guard Dogs to farmers to prevent predation to small stock herds. Our latest “Dog of War”, Alpha, was paced with his new herd of goats on the farm of Mrs Babs Brandt, near Baltimore in the Limpopo Province this week. Alpha immediately showed a lot of interest into his new goat buddies and we are hopefull that he will bond closely with the goats and to protect them not only against cheetah predation but also against other predators such as caracal, brown hyena and leopard. Cheetah Tracker 2 also was involved with the release of four sub-adult cheetah males (Mandla, Shockwave, Dozi and Umvoti) onto a property called Hagne who has where they will be rewilded for eventual release back into a larger reserve withing approximately 8 months. Oh well, enough of this office work. Cheetah Tracker 2 is calling and I have a lot of interesting places to travel to with Tracker 2. |
| KELLY'S
DIARY
22 May 2007  An
Anatolian puppy called Alpha was flown up from Cheetah Outreach in Cape
Town, so I went to collect the little guy from the airport. After a
short wait, they brought him out in his crate – on a fork lift!
A bit extreme for a package weighing less than 20kgs!!! He was driven
right up to the boot of Cheeta1 and I loaded him into a more luxurious
mode of transport and headed to De Wildt. I was surprised that he was
a quiet dog, I was expecting a trip with him barking and howling all
the way – I was pleasantly surprised, then….. the smell
of warm urine penetrated the new leather smell of Cheeta1, I spent the
rest of the trip with the window open and watering eyes! Luckily the
crate was ‘pee proof’ and the smell left with the crate!
We arrived at De Wildt and put Alpha in next to Jedi. Jedi was so excited
and little Alpha started to look happier too. Deon and Luke delivered
him to the farm the next day.
|
| KELLY'S
DIARY 16 May 2007  Minutes,
minutes, minutes of meetings…… I don’t know why they
are called minutes when they take hours to write up!!! So the NCCF minutes
got done at the beginning of the week to allow time for more exciting
work! On Wednesday Deon, Luke (our new field officer) and I were off to Shingwedzi to collar a female cheetah that came in. Luke went to collect her on Saturday – his first solo job since he started last week! Once the female was immobilise, we realised that she had a horrible skin problem on her neck from her ears to her shoulders, all her hair was missing and it looked a bit like mange. So off she went to Old Chapel Vet Clinic for the expert help of Peter Cauldwell we eagerly await her results. Then off to Thabazimbi to reset a capture cage to try and recaptured George and Joss. George and Joss are a collation of two male cheetahs who are one of the first that we ever collared in our research project. They were captured on the farm Silent Valley belonging to the Jeurissen family. When dad Hans left for an overseas trip, his daughters Georgina and Jocelyn called to say we should catch and collar the cats while Hans was away!!! We got the two boys and Hans came home to two collared cheetahs running around on his farm and named after his daughters. He thought the girls had lost their minds!!!! The Jeurissen family is now an integral part of our research project and their support is invaluable to us! But back to the point, George and Joss’s collars are not functioning well, so they need to be replaced, which means that we need to catch the cheetahs. Setting a trap cage is a huge job and involves physical labour: chopping down trees to make the boma, dragging heavy cages around digging up soil, etc. Luke jumped in with enthusiasm and chopped with the panga till he had 10 blisters on his hands. But between us we got the job done in about 3-4 hours and now we hold thumbs that the cheetah co-operate – soon!!!! Wildlife sighting of the week: an African civet – foraging relaxed along the side of the road, also a caracal running across the road!!! |
| KELLY'S
DIARY 9 May 2007  After
a very long weekend, it was back to work with two NCCF meetings (National
Cheetah Conservation Forum of South Africa) on consecutive days. These
meetings are great in that we get to network, catch up and discuss strategies
and problems with other people in the cheetah world: from farmers, conservation
officials, biologists and captive breeders. They are also a lot of work
because I am secretary for the NCCF and the minutes and organising are
my responsibility!!!!Friday found the Wild Cheetah Project teamed up with the Outreach Education department at De Wildt. The two teams headed up to Thabazimbi with Byron to visit the Mount Hope School. This is a very small farm school in the heart of our core study area where the children and their parents live and work in cheetah country. The school is also on a road that leads up to one of out camera trapping sites, so I frequently drive past it and have often given the children and their bicycles a lift back to the farm where our camera trap is placed. One day the teacher, David, flagged me down for a lift for the kids but there were no bikes. I asked where the bikes were and he explained that the bikes had been donated by a government department, but that now they are all in need of repairs before they can be ridden again. These children ride the bikes several kilometres to and from school everyday, but they have no funds to buy the spare parts needed to fix the bikes. I approached Vanessa and Deon and they were keen for De Wildt to help out, so I got a list of parts needed from David and ordered them from our local bike shop in Jo’burg. Last Friday, Byron delivered the parts to the children on behalf of himself and his wild cheetah friends. On arrival, there was a sign board on the school gate saying “No Byron, No Entry”. Lucky we had Byron with us!!!! Amos gave the children a refresher lesson as Byron had visited the school last year. The children were, as usual, glued to Amos who is an excellent educator and Byron worked his usual magic! David had also invited some of the labourers off the neighbouring farms, one of whom had seen a wild cheetah very recently. The school was given a Cheetah Tracker bin for their litter as well as several learning aids and instructions on how to start a veggie garden. All in all, everyone enjoyed the day and it is wonderful to be able to make a difference in a few lives. We are inclined to take so much for granted, like transport! We forget how privileged we are to be able to climb into our cars to go somewhere and open our fridges to take out a snack!! |
| DEON'S
DIARY 26 April 2007  This
week found the Cheetah 2 Tracker vehicle cruising to the Northern Cape
Province of South Africa. The destination was a 60000 ha privately owned
nature reserve in the beautiful Kalahari, 890 kilometers from the De
Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust. The reserve called “Glen Lyon”
received two cheetahs a few months ago from the De Wildt Tracker Project
and these two cheetahs were destined to be released into a 10 000 ha
section of the Glen Lyon Reserve. The plan was to release the female
cheetah called “Storm” and then three weeks later the male
called “Danny” would be released. “Storm” was
captured by a rancher on the Botswana border more than a year ago as
a young cub. She was taken to the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust
and after a re-wilding period on a smaller reserve in Limpopo, Storm
was taken to Glen Lyon at the end of last year. “Danny”
the male cheetah was flown to Glen Lyon as per a previous diary entry.
After a 10 minute tug-off-war between me and Storm on a piece of springbok
hind quarter, I finally managed to lure her out of the boma and she
then feasted on the springbok hind quarter with the Cheetah Tracker
vehicle in the background. Later that afternoon, Storm wandered off
to discover her new home. During a follow up tracking of Storm two days
later, she was found on a huge springbok ram which she has caught. She
was feasting on her prey, and she paid no attention to us at all. The
Kalahari recently had rain and was covered with yellow flowers. The
Tracker vehicle made easy driving in the thick red Kalahari sand. |
 KELLY'S
DIARY26 April 2007 “A farmer near Cumberland in the Thabazimbi district had been complaining about cheetahs on his property. One of the professional hunters that work there had also found a cheetah marking post on the farm. The farmer and I decided to set a camera trap at the marking post to see how many cheetahs are actively using the post and then we would consider the options available from there. I set the camera trap and left it there for just over a month. I got the photographs developed this week and wow – what a surprise!! We got one cheetah photographed, but he was wearing a collar. We have never collared a cheetah in that area before. A quick glance at our records and the remains of the red paint on the radio collar told us that the cheetah was a cat called Mabuls. We collared him on the farm Mabulskop that is more that 80km away in a straight line!!! Amazing! While flying, Deon has been unable to locate him often, and now we know why – he was almost in a different time zone! This highlights a few things for us. Firstly, one farmer who hammers cheetahs on his property can have a far reaching influence on the whole district, even as far as 80km away. Secondly, radio telemetry is not giving accurate results for our range use studies – the cheetahs are just moving over distances that are too vast, making it impossible to find them every time. To get really accurate results, we need to replace all our collars with GPS Satellite or cell phone collars. We have done this in our core study area and within a few months of replacing the collars, the cheetahs range had doubled! I don’t believe that the cheetahs suddenly decided to move further just because they were wearing different collars, I believe that we are getting more accurate data!! If anyone has some spare cash lying around – I could put it to a good cause!!!!” |
 KELLY'S
DIARY23 April 2007 I spent the first part of the week slogging away in front of the computer. I had sent an article on camera trapping in for publication in a while ago and one of the referees was very motivated and sent tons of recommendations and changes. While it is a pain to pull out the raw data and re-analyse some parts of it, the corrections will make the paper of better quality, but I still have tons to do before it is finalised!!! The second part of the week was more interesting, a scat sniffing trip!!!! Scat sniffing dog Diesel had spent the whole of the previous day about to explode with excitement when he realised I was packing his stuff into Cheeta1, he was nearly impossible, he jumped into the car and would not get out – sitting on the drivers seat shaking and whining with excitement. I eventually convinced him that we were only going to leave early in the morning and he got out the car, tempted by a tennis ball. Early the following morning a VERY excited Diesel and I collected dog trainer Shannon McKay of McKaynine Training Centre and we all headed up to Thabazimbi. Shannon was not feeling great as she has bacterial arthritis and was very stiff and sore – but she was a real trooper and we had a great trip! We started off on Silent Valley (where cheetahs George and Joss were captured). Diesel is still in the middle of his training, so we were working at getting him to find marking posts that we know exist. This allows us to see if he is picking up the scent and able to pin point it. The cheetahs were not being very co-operative the scent posts were not very active and there was no scat on most of them. However, we had some scat in the back of the car with us, so we were able to place scat to allow Diesel to get a ‘find’. It is very important that he feels he is achieving something to keep him motivated for the work – especially as he is still young and new at the job! Amazingly, Diesel even managed to find a discarded clump of grass that Shannon had used to carry a scat on!!! Since the last trip, Diesel has improved greatly (Shannon scored him 9 out of 10 compared to his 5 of the last trip!!!). He saw his first snake close up – a HUGE puff adder – he was curious, but stayed by my side and didn’t bark (Shannon and I both agreed that this was yet another confirmation that working him on lead is very necessary!!). That night he even climbed onto the bottom of my sleeping bag and got some sleep – last time there were elephants outside the house and he spent the whole night making huff huff noises, walking round on the tiled floor and eventually wanted to sleep on my chest, December in Thabazimbi is way too hot to share your bed with a toasty little dog!!!! All in all we had a very successful trip and I got a good night sleep! Shannon was very happy with Diesel’s work and next time we are going to work in an area where we know cheetahs are moving, but don’t know where the marking posts are!!!! When we got home, dusty Diesel got a bath then the hard working little soul passed out on the bed, moved to the sofa and then into his basket at bed time – a little sleep monster! |
| DEON'S
DIARY |
 DEON'S
DIARY16 April 2007 At last the official launch of the De Wildt Cheetah Tracker project arrived. Our vehicles were suitably branded in cheetah spots for the day and we proudly displayed the two vehicles to the media during the launch. The launch was incredible, especially having Bryan Habana run not just once, but twice against our Ambassador cheetahs. Well, as expected the cheetahs won the race and this was a clear illustration of the race that the cheetahs are actually running against the human species. One on one the cheetahs are a sure winner, but due to human misconceptions and greed, cheetahs are losing the race of survival outside of protected areas in South Africa. The next day, it was back to work again. I collected a cheetah called "Danny" from De Wildt early morning and drove him to a waiting aircraft at the Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria. Danny was confiscated by Conservation Authorities three years ago from a scrupulous wildlife trader and was placed under the wing (or spot) of De Wildt to relocate him back into the wild. Danny was relocated into a private conservation area in the far Northern Limpopo and he adapted very well here. Actually too well, as he produced two litters of cubs within two years. It was decided to move Danny to a new reserve to prevent possible genetic inbreeding. The waiting aircraft was to take Danny to the Glen Lyon Nature Reserve in the Northern Cape where he would be released into a 8000ha reserve. As a special surprise for Danny, we relocated a good looking female cheetah called Storm to the same reserve earlier this year. The two will spend two weeks in joining camps to get to know each other, after which Storm will be released and two weeks later, Danny will once again taste freedom when he will be released. |
| DEON'S
DIARY |
What
a busy month!!! Cheetah 2 once again was mainly involved with cheetah
and other predator issues in the Limpopo Province. Unfortunately during
this period Cheetah2 was “HiJacked” by the Sasol Technology
team for a exhibiton and Cheeta2 was replaced with a loan vehicle
(a Nissan double cab 4x4). Dear Diary readers ... this was the hardest
five days for me since receiving Cheeta2. It is unbelievable how quickly
a person gets spoilt driving Cheeta2 and you only realise this when
you get downgraded to another “supposedly Luxury vehicle”.
In any case Cheeta2 (now a Nissan) collected a very angry leopard
male from a farmer in the Lephalale area. This farmer had captured
the leopard in a trap, but refused to get out of the vehicle when
I had to chase him into the transport cage (something tells me this
farmer had a bad experience with a leopard). Luckily Luke Strugnell,
my field officer was with me and we loaded the leopard male into the
transport crate. He was released onto Kaingo Private Game Reserve
in the Waterberg a few days later, during a thunder storm which is
very uncharacteristic for that area this time of year (We can only
blame it on global warming...). Later that week I collected Cheeta2
from the Sasol Technolgies official and it was unbelievable to experience
the very familiar buzz of the Merc engine. Wow it was great to have
Cheeta2 back. 
What
a busy week! But the highlight was definitely the release of captive
cheetah Phoenix. It went perfectly with Ann and Bennie opening the gate
and Narinda luring her out of the boma with a piece of meat. Bennie
and Narinda followed her closely and she did a walk past the deck where
we were all having breakfast. She is currently exploring the reserve
and giving the researchers a good workout trying to keep up with her!
The project made the front page of a local newspaper with a stunning
picture. 
Deon called me on Friday early evening and the conversation went something
like this: 
Remember
the female cheetah with the horrible mange on her neck? Well, Peter
performed some miracles and we were able to release her this week. She
is a lovely big cat with a lot of spunk and she spits and hisses inside
the box. It was great to see her run off into the bush, still growling!
Luke got a short video clip of her on his phone and Deon edited it on
his phone (hi-tech team) – we will try and get it onto the website!