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Wildt
Tales, November 2006 Mission
To achieve its mission the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust has an extensive community outreach and education program and a strategic breeding plan. The Trust conducts research on wildlife disease and nutrition and in South Africa it has implemented a national plan for the conservation of free-roaming cheetah. |
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Betty’s diary - The beginning
There are many people in South Africa who use snares to catch animals- be it for food, poaching or for the purpose of catching predators that are depleting livestock or game on a private ranch. Snares are crude hand-made traps usually involving a pressure plate and a pair of iron jaws that are opened, fixed onto a well used antelope path and covered with branches and leaves. Once the animal steps onto the plate, iron jaws come together with crushing force and it is left to struggle alone until the misguided and cruel individual who set the trap finally comes to end its suffering. Unfortunately, snares are unable to choose what they catch. This is the story of Betty-Blue, a very special cheetah that was rescued by Dr Peter Caldwell, the vet responsible for the animals at De Wildt. Betty’s left hind leg was caught in a snare in the North Eastern part of South Africa and after an initial examination, the local vet suggested euthanasia. Ann van Dyk, Deon Cilliers, Manager of the Wild Cheetah Project at De Wildt and Peter were called on for their opinions and Peter, with De Wildt’s support decided to fight for her life. Betty was immediately taken to Peter’s clinic and from here the hard work began. Betty arrived at Peter’s on the 3rd of November 2005 and he set to work immediately. Gangrene had already started in Betty’s paw and Peter was forced to amputate two toes while trying to stretch her pad across the gaping wound. This wound should have healed in the following month but something was missing. After the amputation of the toes, the skin of the pad started melting away leaving raw flesh where there was previously the tough protection of her pad. Peter found out that Betty had been given steroids in the hope that her foot would come right on it’s own. It was not good news for Betty because these steroids would prolong the wound’s healing by a year or more. On the 24th of November 2005, Betty arrived at what was to become her new home, the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre. She was placed in one of our wild cheetah enclosures and was closely monitored. The pad pulled away after a few days of walking around and Betty was once again on her way to Peter to have it seen to. Peter re-stitched the pad on and gave strict instructions to change the bandage daily. The wound was not healing any faster but was being kept clean and slightly protected by the bandage. After more discussions with Ann and Deon, Peter decided to try another amputation, this time, leaving enough skin for a good skin graft, taking off approximately 2 ½ inches of the foot. Wednesday, the 5th of July 2006 Betty was started on “Ozone Therapy” and the wound started shrinking. After a few trips to Peter and back to De Wildt, Betty arrived home permanently on the 9th of October 2006 with a supportive cast on her leg that is changed every third day. An enormous amount of money, time and energy has been put into this cheetah and yes, it might have been easier to just euthanase her but once you’ve met her; you can’t just turn your back. This wild cheetah now comes into a crush calmly for a few pieces of meat; lies down once caught and holds her leg still while we change the bandage. She does not need to be restrained or drugged but lies there grumbling softly until you have finished. She knows you are trying to help her and that makes her all the more incredible. Her eyes engage you with her zest for life. There is no hatred there. No fear. Betty is a treasured part of our family now and we look forward to the day when her wound is healed completely. Once she’s healed, she might be the first cheetah in the world to wear a prosthetic foot. Ssanyong boosts Outreach Education Programme
Kerri Wolter attended SAWMA
from the 17-19 September where she presented a poster on “Monitoring
the successes of released rehabilitated vultures”. The poster
took first prize in the best poster category, thus putting De Wildt
in the lime light for vulture conservation.
Universal Image in Clear Water Mall Johannesburg have been kind enough to give us discounted rates on developing of our camera trapping photographs! The camera trapping is a vital part of our cheetah monitoring and the developing of the photographs is extremely costly. We would like to thank Universal Image at Clear Water and all their staff for all their enthusiasm about this project. They are almost as excited as I am to see what is on the photographs! Here are some of the latest photographs from the camera traps. SCAT SNIFFING DOG
The classes started with teaching diesel to sniff a scat in a container and sit to indicate. Once he had done this, his ball was thrown and he was made a big fuss of. The container was quickly removed as he learned to recognize it in the space of two classes. The most recent class was held in a piece of veld (open land) near the training centre. The highlight of the class was when Diesel managed to find a piece of scat about the size of a thumb nail from a distance of more that 60 meters. It is hoped that Diesel will help Kelly finding scent marking posts for camera trapping as well as scat for the DNA scatology project done by Kiersten Herring. IAMS, IAMS, IAMS!!!
Byron – Cheetah Ambassador makes an impact at golf day
10 Years of Cheetah Outreach
MASHATU TO THE WORLD...LIVE!
VULTURE RE-SIGHTING ANNUAL CENSUS OF THE
CAPE VULTURE IN THE MAGALIESBERG: Three Cape Vulture colonies occur along the Magaliesberg Mountain Ranch. Each colony is situated on private farm lands at a distance of approximately 20 km from each other. The Robert’s Farm (or Olifantspoort) colony is the westernmost colony situated 3 km east of the Hex River in the North West Province. The Nooitgedacht colony is situated in the Gauteng province, midway between the Scheerpoort colony and the Robert’s Farm (or Olifantspoort) colony. The Skeerpoort colony is situated above the Hartebeespoort Dam within the North West province. RESULTS Skeerpoort
Nooitgedacht
Robert’s Farm During August and September,
chick counts were undertaken to determine breeding success for each
of the colonies: CONCLUSION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
If you haven’t seen a cheetah run at top speed then you are certainly missing something. As part of their enrichment and exercise programme the De Wildt cheetah ambassadors run every Tuesday and Friday morning. The fastest land animal never ceases to amaze and visitors are invited to take action pictures…….if they are quick enough. For a booking call Louise on 012 504 1921/504 1556. In December we will be offering a special holiday package on Tuesdays – a cheetah run and tour for R200 per person. This includes and cup of tea or coffee and a muffin.
A weekend or a mid week
break at our cozy stone lodge is a must. The rustic lodge boasts 9 en-suite
rooms, beautiful gardens and delicious gourmet meals. We have a chapel
in the garden and this is also the ideal venue for small weddings.
The website has been updated to include named photographs of many of your adopted animals. Please go to: www.dewildt.org.za, 'Adopt a Cheetah', 'Photographs of our Wild Children' to see the gallery. Claudine Young writes the following: The past few weeks have gone by in a flash. There has been an enormous amount of information to absorb but it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know so many of you, and of course the amazing creatures here at De Wildt. I will never forget the first time a cheetah licked my hand, or the first time I watched the wild dogs tracking the tour vehicle. The long term plan is to get to know each animal individually – quite an undertaking. Fortunately my new colleagues are incredibly knowledgeable and very patient. Before I go any further, I would like to warmly welcome all our new parents. I hope that you have received your adoption packages safely. Please do let me know if there have been any problems. Additionally, a huge show of appreciation to all those of you who have renewed existing adoptions. Your continued support is so incredibly important to the survival and welfare of these species. I am in the fortunate position of being able to dedicate most of my time to the adoption program. Subsequently, the main objective is to make it a far more personal experience for our parents. Regular updates would be ideal but unfortunately they are not very practical. As an alternative, I am encouraging you to drop me a line whenever you would like an update on your “baby”. So don’t be shy… Last but not least, if you have read Gaby’s gripping article about Betty Blue, you will realise what a special animal she is. Sadly Betty has no adoptive parents yet – if you, or someone you know is interested in becoming her sponsor, please get in touch. Thank you all so much for your assistance in our conservation work and I look forward to hearing from you very soon. Diamond Level EDUCATORS WORKSHOP Our foundation phase educator’s workshop was held at Voorwaarts Laerskool on 15 September 2006. I am pleased to report that it was very well attended. We welcomed a total of 38 teachers from 23 different schools from the Letlhabile and Maboloka clusters. In addition the department of education (Bonjala region) sent two of their foundation phase specialists, Ms R Ndawonde and Ms R Mataboge. One of the main objectives of this workshop was to inspire environmental awareness in the educators, which they could then take into the classroom. Shaka, our king cheetah ambassador was there to add a “wow factor” to the experience, and he certainly mesmerised the audience. We hope that those present will also have understood the value of the outreach program and the impact that having a live cheetah so close can have on adults and children alike. However, it is our goal that the awareness will extend further than the cheetah issue and that more educators will become motivated to tackle other equally important environmental issues during their lessons. More specifically we focused on the introduction of new literacy resources produced in association with Cheetah Outreach. “The Hunt” is a story all about Angel the cheetah and her struggle to take care of her cubs. It is written in three languages, English, Afrikaans and Tswana – this makes it accessible to a wide range of schools. It is also presented in the big book format which makes it a very useful teaching tool. Educators were provided with a package including a copy of the Big Book and a Teacher’s Guide. The guide outlines a series of literacy lessons using the Big Book but also provided ideas for integrating the reader into Life Orientation and Numeracy. I would like to extend our thanks to Dawn Glover from Cheetah Outreach and Grantham Jansen, principal of Lynedoch Primary School; who both came all the way from Cape Town to offer their expertise and support at the workshop.
What would you ride a bicycle for 100 km (+- 63 miles) for???? Kelly is doing it to raise funds for the Wild Cheetah Project. The annual 94.7 Cycle Challenge is being held on Sunday 19 November this year. The race goes through Johannesburg and the surrounding suburbs and is held on tar – and Joburg is NOT flat!!! Kelly prefers off road riding but will be pedaling her heavy mountain bike on the day. So why not show your support and sponsor her per kilometer, or give a donation to make the sweat worth while!!!! For more info on the race go to www.highveld.co.za and click on the Cycle Challenge Sunday logo. Kelly in action at the Magalies
Monster mountain bike race earlier this year.
One day we went on cleaning
rounds, scrubbing water buckets with stiff brushes. After scooping a
thick layer of mud from a wild dog pack’s water trough, we scrubbed
it clean and refilled it to the brim with water, only to watch a muddy
dog hop in with a splash a minute later. We also watched the vet treat
two injured female wild dogs that had been fighting, then accompanied
them back to their camps and waited until they awakened. What an experience to watch a cheetah race by, a blur of spots. We attended three Cheetah Runs and each one was different. Three of the male ambassadors ran the first day. We had been warned that they were sometimes a bit lazy, which was good, as it gave us time to practice with our cameras before trying to photograph the speedier females the next time. At our final run, we flopped in the grass and photographed the cheetahs running right at us. What a thrill! It was wonderful to be a part of the Cheetah Center for a short while, and we will never forget the dedicated people who work here. One of our contributions to De Wildt was developing new displays for the reception room and beginning to design educational posters for the entrance building. De Wildt’s mission to preserve cheetah habitat and keep them from disappearing in the wild has become our mission. Let us hope that someday our children and grandchildren will still be able to see wild cheetahs racing after their prey or dozing in the shade. Should you wish to be on
our newsletter list please contact us: |
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When
she’s rested they’ll have the meal, if no other comes it
to steal
De
Wildt’s Outreach Education would be severely hampered without
wheels as its focus is rural and farming communities. Thanks to Ssanyong
our team consisting of educators and ambassador cheetahs drive in comfort,
style and safety. Approximately 3 schools are visited a week and these
may be many hours away. Often dusty farm roads are used and a reliable
vehicle is essential. The Ssanyong is a double cab and it has a canopy
fitted which enables the ambassador cheetah to look out of the window
while travelling – this is of course a huge source of stimulation
to them as their eyesight is keen. The cheetah mobile as we call it
has been wrapped in a very special eye catching design aimed at gaining
maximum exposure. This year the Ssanyong has already travelled many
thousands of km and 13 000 children have met the environmental team.
SAWMA
(South African Wildlife Management Association Sympsium)
SPONSORSHIP
FOR CAMERA TRAPPING PHOTOS!!
Kelly
has started training a dog to sniff for cheetah scat. The dog is a ten
month old brindle Staffordshire Terrier called Diesel. Diesel was originally
bought by Kelly as a pet but he showed great aptitude and performed
excellently in beginner obedience classes. The scat sniffing is being
done under the guidance of animal trainer and behaviorist Shannon McKay
of McKaynine Training Centre.
It
is impossible to overemphasise the importance of the support which we
receive from Iams. They have an enormous impact on the work we do here
and on the health and well being of our animals. Iams
supply a wide variety of cat diets. Those used here at De Wildt are
mature cat, adult cat, kitten and renal. There are 60 cheetahs on these
diets. This is equivalent to 30 Kg of food per day. The
wild dogs also benefit with 49 dogs on the Iams diet, receiving a combination
of large, medium and small breed food. This is equivalent to another
20 Kg per day. Its OK Alan even
at 50 Kg a day, we should keep going for awhile longer…
The
10th Annual Altech Autopage Cellular Golf Day had a very ‘strange’
participant this year. Byron De Wildt’s cheetah ambassador welcomed
golfers at the first hole with his characteristic purr. It was his first
golf day and the reason for his attendance was due to the fact that
Altech Autopage had chosen the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust as
there charity for the year. The chilly spring morning at the Blue Valley
Country Club was a buzz of activity as staff of Altech Autopage under
the watchful eye of Corporate Affairs Manager, Juanita van der Watt,
ensured that every last detail was attended to. Holes were decorated
with a wildlife theme and golfers were entertained with African beer,
drumming and dancers. It was a fabulous day and the result was a wonderful
contribution towards cheetah conservation. Thank you Altech Autopage
Cellular. Congratulations to the legal department who won the prize
for the ‘Best Dressed Hole’. They are pictured here with
Byron.
On
the 5th of October 2006, the Earth Foundation Environmental Education
Classroom and Seagate Adult Learning Centre was officially opened. Valli
Moosa delivered the opening address and emphasized the role that the
South Afican media has to play in educating the nation. The
invited guests were then encouraged to explore the new classroom and
adult learning centre. Permanent video presentations were shown to guest
concerning the plight of the cheetah and the role of the Anatolian shepherd
guard dog. The classroom is filled with interesting facts about the
cheetah.
Mashatu
Game Reserve has once again joined forces with National Geographic to
transmit live wildlife images, via satellite, to the world. The
first project, which commenced in August 2005, was a resounding success.
Viewers from the world over were able to experience incredible wildlife
sightings from Pete's Pond at Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana . without
leaving the comfort of their homes. Known
as the "Land of the Giants", Mashatu is home to an array of
species - including elephant, zebra, ostrich, plains game, predators
(including lion, leopard, cheetah, jackal and hyena), and many more.
A satellite dish at the waterhole feeds live images on a continual 256kbs
dedicated link from a camera to a satellite in space for "collection"
in Sweden and onward transmission to the internet. Images transmitted
are in colour, with night vision and sound. The
National Geographic site also facilitates an exchange of information
on this fascinating area. Viewers are able to learn more about the animals,
the environment and the research initiatives conducted on the property.
Interactivity is encouraged in live "blogs" between viewers
and Mashatu Game Reserve directly. 
A
Cape Vulture which was rehabilitated by De Wildt and released on the
Farm Nyoka Ridge, Magaliesberg in January 2006 was re-sighted in Blouberg
on the 5 November 2006, 10:00. The vulture was spotted on a Kudu carcass
in good health with its yellow patagial tag number B007. This vulture
came in from Vredefort and was held in captivity for 13 months at De
Wildt.
Holiday
activities
Interested
in supporting cheetah conservation while you sleep?
Cycling
for Cheetahs
Our
two weeks at De Wildt were full of adventures. Each day began early
as we helped the staff prepare food for the animals. We’d count
out baby chicks for the African wild cats and roll medications into
meatballs for cheetahs with gastritis. Shortly after 7 AM we’d
load the truck with food buckets, crates of chickens and horse meat,
then ride around the property doling out the food. Many cheetahs hissed
impatiently, running up and down their camps before being fed. Wild
dogs jumped in the air to grab chickens tossed over the fence. We were
able to carry food bowls into the camps of several tame cheetahs. It
was wonderful to hear them purr in anticipation.
Copyright
© De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust, 2005