Dr. Laurie Marker's Field Notes
February 2006

Dear Cheetah Friends,

I do hope that the new year has started out great for all of you. From my side, here in Namibia, I am two weeks ahead of hip surgery. I had a hip resurfacing operation on the 16th of January in Windhoek to repair my degenerative hip, which has caused me to limp quite badly over the past year or so. So far, I cannot begin to rave about no pain but I am beginning to get around very well. I hope in the next few weeks to be better than before and running with the cheetahs again!

Our year has begun with lots of rains and an abundance of game species. This is a great time of year, as it is the calving time for the kudu, oryx, and hartebeest as well as warthog piglets all over the place! We are having rains that might compare to those of the 1970s, which have not been equalled in over 20 years, breaking the drought that is so common for this region. But, with rain comes mud and getting stuck in it, which we have had our share of by our staff and even tour and school buses coming to visit us.

Many important visitors have honoured us. We began the year by breaking ground in Japan with the signing of a memorandum of understanding during a visit to CCF by a representative of the Japanese Cheetah Conservation Society (JCCS), Kumiko Watanabe, and her advisor and translator, Reiko Itoh. As a result, JCCS is now the official Japanese Cheetah Conservation Fund affiliate. The JCCS, primarily active in Tokyo, Japan, has 80 members and volunteers meeting with other conservation organizations in Asia and spreading the word of the plight of the cheetah.

In only a month, CCF, led by our Education Team, has hosted teachers from the Tsumeb area and several tour groups from the Elderhostel, as well as a university group from New York State University and a wonderful group of youth from three countries, Namibia, Mozambique and Canada. Many of these youth will continue with their interest in cheetahs once they get back home and into their prospective universities. We hope that the Canadian students will assist in the growth of our new CCF Canada Chapter, and that the youth in Mozambique will help in finding out where cheetahs still live in their country. In addition, our new Namibian interns have joined us to begin their six-months work/study program. They have had a steep learning curve as we also began our annual cheetah check-ups and last week worked on 10 of our 38 cheetahs, conducting endoscopies, collecting blood and doing compete physicals, and giving them their annual vaccinations for both feline distemper and rabies. Our EarthWatch and CCF volunteers joined in on all parts of this work as well sharing the long days and hard work. You can also come and help by signing up as a volunteer! Click here for more information.

The CCF Kenya Team also has a very busy year ahead. After three years at the Delamere Estates, from which Mary Wykstra and crew surveyed much of the country, CCF Kenya has moved and is now in a central location in Nairobi, about an hour from their more extensive research area in Machakos. Their conservation research includes telemetry monitoring of a case study female, and they are getting some very interesting movements through heavily populated areas. They also have a busy year ahead of them. In addition to all their research programs this year, CCF Kenya will continue developing education and awareness programs as well as local and international student intern programs.

In Namibia, one of the exciting research projects on the way is to help us estimate the remaining populations of cheetah in non-invasive manners. We do this via photographic captures, and DNA-based captures. In photo trapping, the animal will trigger self-activating cameras and take their own pictures. Last year we purchased a total of 40 Deer CAM passive motion/heat sensor camera traps to this effect. In the DNA-based sample surveys, instead of a picture of the animal, the individual identification is provided by a sample of a body hair that is snagged by a device placed in the animal's path. CCF's research during the past six months has focused on developing techniques to employ these census methodologies in CCF's research study area.

In February, as a part of our soft-release research, we will be releasing our resident cheetahs, Shiraz and her four cubs into our fenced reserve, Bellebeno. Our staff, students and volunteers will monitor the cats constantly through radio-telemetry. Our hope is that Shiraz will learn how to hunt and, in doing so, will teach her cubs to make them more self-sufficient in the wild. This is ground breaking research and is being done very systematically. We will keep you posted on their progress.

You can learn and see more of these projects first-hand! If you received my e-Newsletter in December, you will recall that I mentioned a fabulous trip to Namibia organized by one of our CCF Oregon Cheetah Run gold sponsors, Bill Harmon, nature and wildlife enthusiast. The trip, designed by Bill, is being offered through Azumano Travel American Express, where Bill serves as the Vice President of their Retail Travel. Please take the time to find out how you can spend 14 days enjoying the wonders of Namibia with my staff and me. The tour starts on May 17th, led by me. We will visit the South of the country -Fish River Canyon, and on to Ludertiz -Namibia's first harbour. Then we will go to the coastal town of Swakopmund and on to our country's famous game reserve, the Etosha National Park. The tour ends at CCF for 3 days of learning all about the cheetah. This will be a real hands-on and informative time with us at CCF, and what's more, part of the proceeds from this trip will include a donation to CCF. For more details on this fantastic opportunity, please visit the Azumano Travel web page.

I also want to remind you that with February near, and Valentine's Day being close -you can sponsor one of our resident cheetahs for your favorite Valentine! All our cheetahs are up for sponsorship and the sponsorship comes with a beautiful photo of your selected cheetah, an adoption certificate, and a story about how each cheetah came to CCF. You can do this on line from anywhere in the world, just click here to go to our website. Here's a photo of Harry, Hermione and Ron, our orphans that came to us in September after being found in the bush, hungry and without a mother, when they were about two months old. We will never know what happened to their mother, but they are now well fed and cared for at CCF, as are all our resident cheetahs. Each one of them needs sponsorship. Please help us with this! You can also buy cheetah merchandise at special prices at the Cheetah Shop by clicking here.

We are also asking people to sign up a friend as a CCF member, or encourage your friends to join and help CCF. It would be a great help as we have a hard year ahead of us and the year-end donations were less than what we had anticipated - so e-mail your friends to become new members. It's so easy to sign up online at https://www.cheetah.org/?nd=member.

Speaking of the year ahead, everyone at CCF is busy planning for the spring, with events that will include the World's Fair for Kids in Florida and the Run for the Cheetah in both Phoenix and Orlando. We are also planning events in Southern and Northern California, as well as in Colorado. Registrations are already open for the Second Annual Run for the Cheetah in Arizona that will take place at Papago Park, Phoenix, on April 23, 2006. Don't miss out on this opportunity. For details and to register visit www.runforthecheetah.com. I will also be in the UK from the 6th to the 15th of May for our third annual Cheetah Week! Venues are still being put together, so don't hesitate to contact CCF UK (uk@cheetah.org.

As always, on behalf of our entire CCF team, A BIG THANK YOU to all our supporters worldwide for your help in saving the wild cheetah. 

Yours on behalf of the cheetah,

Laurie Marker, PhD
Founder and Executive Director
Cheetah Conservation Fund

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