Cheetah and Livestock Guarding Dog Update

By Lora Allen and Paige Seitz

Cheetah update:

We have been busy over the last fews months at CCF, with new orphaned and injured cheetah cubs coming in and much needed introductions happening between other orphaned cheetahs already living at CCF.

On August 9th, three cheetah cubs came to us from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. One cub spent the night at a veterinarian’s office in Gobabis and with CCF’s carnivore researcher, Dr. Haline Winterbach, who helped transfer the cub to CCF. The cub was paralyzed, so we performed x-rays of its spine and hips. We were not sure if the cub would ever walk, which put us in a terrible position. However, we took care of the disabled cub, and almost two months later, the cub has been recovering well under CCF’s care. He has regained movement in his legs and was reintroduced to his two siblings. His brother and sister seemed happy to be reunited and now all three cubs are doing well together.

Introductions have also started with Dominic and Sasha. Dominic, our 6-month-old orphan cub, has previously been sharing a fence line with Sasha and in the last month they were able to interact without a fence line between them. Dominic and Sasha learnt each other’s smell through sharing the same enclosure at different times of the day.

Dog update:

Repet and Lady’s pups are getting ready to go out to their new farms in the West and East of Namibia this month. The 12 farmers receiving puppies are excited to get to work with their new employees. These puppies will be used to protect the farmers’ livestock from depredation and in return farmers coexist with predators as both respect each other’s land use. Most farmers see an 80-100% reduction in their livestock losses with these Anatolian Shepherd puppies, making them in high demand. CCF currently has approximately 160 dogs out assisting farmers.