NamibRand Cheetahs – September 2009

September 2: The satellite collar upload worked normally this week and we have good data for the last nine days. I’m including a map covering the period from August 26th – September 2nd to take advantage to all of the new data.

While they seem to be remaining in the same general area, the boys are spending less time in the vicinity of the old pens.

Female Cheetah update: There’s no change with regards to the female. She is still on Zaries and still in the same general area. In the past 6 days she has walked in a loop and ended up more or less where she started.

September 4: The male cheetahs are still moving on their route which is between Draaihoek, Keerweder and Wolwedans (Zebra dam). According to the satellite collar upload, now they are spending much time on Wolwedans side than at the Old cheetah pen (Keerweder), although they are still visiting the pen and mark it whenever they are around it.

I was lucky today; I found their kill (one of the objectives for my project) that they made in the morning I guess. They have hunted an adult female springbok. We found a fresh carcass in the afternoon when I was tracking them. The carcass is fully consumed (only bones left), with the end soft bones of the ribs chewed. They were still in the same area but some few metres away from the kill site. All resting, full of meat and lazy as well, we could only see their heads rising up and down.

September 24: The five males are doing well and in good health. Still around Keerweder but it seems like they have decided not to visit the guest house anymore, this week they have not been there. From today’s observation, they are on Wolwedans side. They have hunted a young oryx (I have not measured the horn length or width, because the boys were still in the bush were the carcass was but it looks young) today late in the morning I guess.

I found the carcass fresh but fully eaten with only the head, legs and ribs were left. The end of the ribs was chewed as usual. I found Lindt lying in the bush next to the kill while the others were lying in another bush 100 m away from the kill site, but the others joined him later as I drove next to them. The poor things were full and found it difficult to walk as they walked from the bush where they were resting to the kill site.

The maps include a week and a half worth of data for the boys. As for the female, she is moving around quite a bit at the moment and generally in a southern direction but still remaining on Zaries.