Absalom Shiwedha
29 July 2008
WHEN cheetahs are introduced into new areas, it is important that the behaviour of individual cats is closely monitored to ensure their health and adaptation to their new environment, says cheetah expert Dr Laurie Marker.
Dr Marker, the Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), was speaking last weekend when five male cheetahs were released into the NamibRand Nature Reserve in the South.
Marker said there were few suitable places for cheetahs in Namibia because most of the country is occupied by livestock farms.
She said NamibRand was one of the few places in the world ideally suited for a long-term reintroduction project.
"Wildlife has increased in the NamibRand and it is now one of the few places in the world where the cats can move back into the wild," Marker told The Namibian.
She said the CCF believed the cheetahs would thrive there, as farmers in the area had been taught how to co-exist with the cats.
The five cheetahs had been living in a 50-hectare camp at Amani Lodge, a private guest lodge southwest of Windhoek, for the past three years.
The CCF research team worked on the cheetahs at Amani Lodge before they were transported to NamibRand last Sunday.
"The cheetahs were anaesthetised for sample collections including blood for overall health and genetics.
Sperm was collected and frozen and the cheetahs underwent endoscopies for a collection of gastric biopsies," said the CCF.
The five cheetahs were part of CCF's long-term research.
At NamibRand, the cheetahs were put in a two-hectare holding pen for 10 days.
A soft release will be done this week, when the pen will be opened for the cheetahs to go into wild.
The cats will be followed closely, using radio and satellite tracking under the direction of CCF research staff.
All five cheetahs have been radio-collared.
Marker said this was the first time a structured re-introduction was being attempted.
NamibRand Chief Executive Officer Nils Odendaal said: "We are thrilled to finally be able to release cheetah on the reserve as it has been an ambition of ours for several years to restore them to the area, providing a holistic ecosystem."
Under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), cheetahs are threatened and a protected species in Namibia.
In Africa, there is an estimated wild population of 10 000 cheetahs and about 3 000 of them are in Namibia.
Marker said Namibia's wild cheetah population had increased in the last 15 years thanks to educating farmers how to live with the cats.
The NamibRand Reserve, established on 1981, is one of southern Africa's largest private nature reserves and conserves critically important desert habitat.
It covers an area of 172 200 hectares.
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