Vanier College Students Participate in Bush Encroachment Project

by Dr. Bogdan Cristescu February 18, 2023

Collage of students at Vanier College, and a acropped bush encroachment infographic.

A Partnership is Launched

We are happy to report that Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) and Vanier College, in Montreal, Canada, have set up a long-term collaboration in which Vanier College students will periodically travel from Canada to Namibia to gain on-the-ground African conservation experience.

A major part of their time at CCF will be helping to run a long-term monitoring project to determine the impacts of bush encroachment on the fauna and flora of southern African savannas.

Bush encroachment is the rapid expansion of native woody vegetation (bush) species to the potential detriment of open savanna areas and component species, such as the cheetah. (You can read CCF’s recent review of bush encroachment effects of carnivores here.)

An informative infographic about bush encroachment in Namibia, detailing its causes like elevated $CO_2$ and overgrazing, negative impacts such as decreased hunting efficiency for cheetahs, and selective thinning solutions. — A bush encroachment infographic

Specifics about the Monitoring Project

The project is designed as an outdoors experiment during which animals and plants are monitored closely and over the long-term in 6 plots, each being 1 hectare in size. After an initial 2 years monitoring the ecological system in its current condition, targeted harvest of bush at various levels will occur in the plots.

The animal and plant communities and their adaptation to/colonization of harvested plots will be documented in another 2 years. The 6 plots will be purpose-delineated for this project and no activities will occur in them other than research monitoring and the planned harvest.

Three smiling young women wearing sunglasses and hats taking a selfie outdoors in front of a thatched-roof building, with one wearing a blue Cheetah Conservation Fund t-shirt and the other two in matching yellow Cheetah Conservation Fund t-shirts. — The first group of Vanier College internship students to arriving at CCF: (from left to right) Katya Picciani, Serena Duperron, and Isabelle Belisle.

First Vanier College Students Arrive with Supplies

The first group of Vanier College students – Alyssa, Serena and Katya – are already on site at CCF and helping set up the plots in the field, being engaged in marking their boundaries and preparing the sampling equipment.

Most of the equipment required for scientific monitoring is being provided in-kind by Vanier College and includes, among other items, camera traps for monitoring medium and large mammals day and night, zoom lens cameras for field teams to record animal observations, and a variety of specialized equipment for vegetation sampling.