Success for Shandy – Second Generation Wild

In 2014, CCF released Jacomina, an adult female, in Erindi Private Game Reserve where she gave birth to two female cubs, Savanna and Shandy. Savanna and Shandy separated from Jacomina during the middle of 2015 and are now thriving on their own as adult cheetahs. From the data collected with her GPS collar we can easily see here that Shandy has been returning repeatedly to the same location for 2.5 weeks. With female cheetahs, the time we see this movement behaviour is when they give birth to cubs, and CCF researchers have determined that Shandy most likely gave birth sometime during 3 May 2016.

The image above is a quick screenshot of her GPS data and the centroid of all the lines indicate the location of Shandy’s den (the starlike pattern is usually a clear indicator of cubs). If these cubs survive to adulthood, they will be the second generation descendent from a rehabilitated and released individual from CCF lending greatly to the overall success of CCF’s rehabilitation and release programme.