| Campaigns |
| Marwell Zimbabwe Trust Cheetah Project |
The cheetah is Africa’s most endangered big cat. They are being forced onto land outside protected areas, as they face competition from stronger predators such as lions and hyenas. Cheetahs are coming into conflict with humans, as they are forced to prey on livestock. The Marwell Zimbabwe Trust Cheetah Project aims to collect information about the extent and distribution of cheetahs that prove problematic to farmers in Zimbabwe, by identifying hotspots of cheetah activity and assisting landowners in reducing livestock losses due to cheetah predation on their properties. The project has been working closely with farmers to record onto a database all cheetah sightings and livestock killings on their land. The project advises farmers how to manage their livestock and has started to introduce anti-predator techniques to resettlement areas, such as kraals to keep livestock safe. Some problematic cheetahs have also been radio collared to monitor their movements on private land. The project has produced a training manual; 'Living with Cheetahs', for school teachers and a multi-lingual "Spot the Difference" poster that has been distributed to farmers, national parks and local police in surrounding areas. This raises awareness of cheetahs and differentiates between this species and leopards. Action for the Wild sponsored the MZT Cheetah Project between 2001 and 2006. Our donation of £500 in 2006 was used to buy a new computer for the cheetah project. This new system will be used to conduct a cheetah ecology study and will have the facilities to manage the data for the cheetahs that the project will collar in 2007. Good quality software will also be used to produce education material at a lower cost April 2007 update The two cheetah project students completed their fieldwork in the Maramani area of the Beitbridge district. They conducted their study on both sides of the Shashe river, in both the maramani communal area, and the Tuli safari area. The data is currently being analysed, but initial findings suggest that only a few cheetahs use the study site. They interviewed 66 respondents (mainly on the maramani side), of which 12 reported cheetah sightings. There were only 2 group sizes reported (1 & 3 individuals). They also saw a cheetah spoor, and an elephant! Livestock losses were also reported, but they were thought to be attributable to hyena and Jackals rather than cheetahs. Our current attachment students will soon have written up their reports and will be completing their attachment period. The cheetah project purchased a new PC, funded by Action for the Wild, which arrived this month. This will allow data analysis using up-to-date software such as GIS (Geographic Information System) programmes to be conducted. The old windows 2000 PC is now being used by the attachment students. MZT has been invited to collaborate with Roxy Dankwerts, who has been training two ambassador cheetahs in Harare. She intends to use the cheetahs to educate people on cheetah conservation. Roxy invited us to help her hold a stall at the national bull sale in July, where we can distribute educational material and discuss non-lethal predator management techniques with cattle farmers. I have also being organising the MZT cheetah project reference library. Much of the most relevant material has been collated and inputted into reference management software, which has highlighted important literature that is not currently available at Dambari. I have also started acquiring literature for the project, both from online resources and as hardcopies, mainly from the UK. These resources are important for planning the cheetah project and will be useful for current and future attachment students and researchers. I met with Viv Wilson to discuss the prospect of collaborating on the cheetah status survey. He has a Parks ecologist running the project for Chipangali, so I intend to meet with her to discuss sharing data collection. May 2007 update The two students attached to the cheetah project are nearing the end of their attachment, and expect to leave by the end of June. Much of the month was spent discussing data analysis and project write-ups, and reading report drafts. Arrangements were also made to interview applicants for the attachment students to replace the current students. A week was spent on a first aid course run by Medical Air Rescue Service in Bulawayo. This training is very important, given the nature of the fieldwork in remote areas the project entails. Researchers working in the area on carnivore surveys have been contacted to investigate the possibility of conducting a cheetah spoor survey in Zimbabwe as a method to assess cheetah abundance. Plans have been made to visit Zeke Davidson, of Hwange lion research, to observe his methodology for conducting spoor surveys for large felids. Paule Gros, the author of a number of papers on estimating cheetah population size in several countries in east Africa using questionnaires, was also contacted to provide advice on designing a similar survey in Zimbabwe. Copies of several important publications on cheetah ecology have been sourced, and the cheetah project literature database is being built up. Many attempts have been made to make progress with ordering cheetah GPS collars from Sirtrack, but they have not been successful. The Cheetah coordinator will try and find out what the problem is and why Sirtrack have not been responding in a timely manner. (Picture credited to Marwell Zimbabwe Trust Cheetah Project) |
Copyright © Colchester Zoo 2010 All Rights Reserved. Website by Datapartners
Registered office as above. A charity registered at the Charity Commission
No. 1105621 Trustees A C Downing, S D Knuckey, L J Spurgeon, P R Johnson