Dr. Laurie Marker, Leading Cheetah Expert and Innovative Conservationist, Tours the United States this Fall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. Laurie Marker, Leading Cheetah Expert and Innovative Conservationist, Tours the United States this Fall

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 (Alexandria, VA) — Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), will be making public appearances at several venues around the United States this fall, including Washington, DC; New York, NY; Oklahoma City, OK; Syracuse, NY; St. Louis, MO; Santa Rosa, CA; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; Denver, CO; and Portland, OR.
Dr. Marker, an American, is recognized as a leading expert on cheetahs – their biology, genetics, ecology, breeding, and issues related to their conservation. She is also an extraordinarily dedicated conservationist. In 1990, Dr. Marker left her position with the Smithsonian, and moved to Namibia to found CCF so that she could work directly with cheetahs in the wild.

From humble beginnings interviewing local farmers for field research, Laurie has built an impressive Conservation Centre that comprises 100,000 acres, a vet clinic, genetics lab, model farm with goats, sheep and cows, livestock guarding dogs, and approximately 50 orphaned or injured cheetahs.

Dr. Marker has also built successful programs by taking an innovative approach to endangered species conservation — providing assistance to the people who live alongside cheetahs so that humans and animals may thrive together. “It is not enough to simply tell people they shouldn’t kill cheetahs because they are the world’s fastest land mammal and there are less than 10,000 of them left on the whole planet. None of that matters to a goat farmer if he can’t make a living or feed his family,” says Dr. Marker.

Among the programs that Dr. Marker has created are the Livestock Guarding Dog program (LSGD), which breeds and trains Anatolian shepherd and kangal dogs to protect local herds so that farmers are not threatened by the presence of cheetahs on their land. CCF has placed nearly 400 dogs since 1994, with about 150 dogs in service at any given time, and about 20 puppies place every year. Farmers who use a CCF dog to guard their livestock report a drop in predation rate of anywhere between 80 to 100 percent, and farmers now are far less likely to kill or trap cheetah on their lands.

Dr. Marker has also created Bushblok, a low emission, high efficiency fuel log made from processed thornbush. Namibia’s farmlands are choked with thornbush, which not only reduces the available range lands for cheetahs, but the potential farmlands for Namibians. Producing Bushblok not only thins the invasive and detrimental thornbush and restores wildlife habitat and farmland, it provides a renewable fuel resource for Namibians. Dr. Marker’s work with Bushblok received the Tech Museum’s Intel Prize for the Environment in 2008.

Dr. Marker will be available for media appearances and interviews at every stop along her tour. Please contact CCF Communications Coordinator, Liz Georges at (703) 402-5354 to schedule an interview.

Dr. Laurie Marker is a recipient of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, The Tech Museum’s Intel Environmental Prize, and a two-time finalist for the prestigious Indianapolis Prize. She was named a Hero for the Planet by Time magazine and has been featured in Smithsonian magazine as well as on numerous television shows, including The Tonight Show, Good Morning America and the Today Show.

Cheetah Conservation Fund The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is the global leader in research and conservation of cheetahs. It is a USA 501c3 with field headquarters in Namibia. CCF is dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild. CCF believes that understanding the cheetah’s biology, ecology, and interactions with people is essential to conserve the cheetah in the wild. The strategy is a three-pronged process of research, conservation and education, beginning with long-term studies to understand and monitor the factors affecting the cheetah’s survival. Results are used to develop conservation policies and programs. CCF works with local, national and international communities to raise awareness, communicate, and educate.