Dear Cheetah Friend,

So much more has happened since my last eLetter, as we continue to make great progress on several fronts and to strengthen our collaborative efforts.

In this eLetter:

• CCF in Namibia - Cheetahs, Research, Livestock Guarding Dogs, Education and Eco-Tourism, Our Annual Gala
• CCF in Kenya
• On the Road - Recent Awards, European Spring Tour
• Cheetos' Chester sponsors CCF's Chester

CCF in Namibia

Chewbaaka's birthday celebrations last month were great fun. We started off his birthday with him running in our ' Little Serengeti' 3,000-acre field teaming with wildlife - being 13 years old didn't seem to matter to the Big C; he can still run fast and beautifully. We then went to visit his favourite play tree, which he sniffed and marked to the delight of everyone watching him. Chewbaaka knows how special he is, and we wish he knew what a great response we have had to his Birthday Challenge donation efforts! People from all over the world have donated to help us meet the Challenge.

Our recent days have been hectic. We have been feeding newborn cheetah cubs around the clock. A farmer shot a very pregnant female cheetah, due to his dislike for cheetahs, and found the stomach moving. He opened her up and found four cubs. Unfortunately, one did not make it; however the other three are doing great so far.

An entire year of planning came to fruition in July when we released five of CCF's cheetahs into the NamibRand Nature Reserve. The five male cheetahs, Ra, Kia, Mushara, Lindt and Cadbury, were in a holding pen for a week, after spending four years at Amani Lodge's 50-hectare camp. We selected this group for the historic release, because they were somewhat used to people and they had shown an ability to hunt game that found its way into their camp.

Seeing them take their first steps to freedom was amazing. Their new home consists of open plains full of springbok and other antelope, with high mountains bordering the plains. Upon release from an enclosure where they spent a week to acclimatize themselves to the area, all five cats moved swiftly up to the top of the closest hill and surveyed their new home. From there they moved southeast to spend their first few nights in the foothills of the mountains. We have been monitoring their movements by radio telemetry and satellite tracking technology, as well as by vehicle and on foot. We will continue feeding them until they begin to hunt on their own. After the second day, they came for food, and have each consecutive day, and chased their first springbok after their third day of freedom. They seem at home in the mountains but daily are making sorties into the plains, and we hope they will hunt soon! The release will be a part of a UK Channel 5 TV programme that will air in October.

Five other male cheetahs at CCF, who are also designated for potential reintroduction into the wild, were moved to Amani Lodge's camp. CCF is currently holding 49 cheetahs (19 males and 30 females), including several new animals. The female cheetah that was caught last April in a leg-hold trap (gin-trap) with her five month-old male cub has now had several operations on both back legs. A few weeks after she arrived, we picked up a year-old male cheetah cub that was also caught in a sheep corral with a bone-deep wound to his mouth. Then we picked up two eight-week old cheetah cubs after the farmer killed the mother and other cubs. These new cubs, N'dungu (clever) and Shinga (yellow), have kept us busy and they are settling into their routine here.

Research

During the past three months, CCF has made significant progress on cheetah population estimates using camera-trapping methodology. After finishing a camera-trapping survey 200 km south in the Sandveld Conservancy, CCF's ecologists, Fabiano, and Chris started another three-month survey around the Waterberg Conservancy.

In June, we hosted a Bayesian Networks Workshop (at right) for our Namibia cheetah group. The workshop was facilitated by Prof. Kerrie Mengersen and Ph.D. Candidate Sandra Johnson, from Queensland University of Technology's School of Mathematical Sciences in Australia. The collective team from CCF, the Namibian Ministry of Environment, and International Zoological Research of Berlin worked for three days developing a model that best defined the factors that influence the cheetah population growth and decline in Namibia. Group Photo

The first weekend of August brought together more than 80 volunteers to conduct our annual Waterberg Conservancy 12-hour waterhole count. CCF alone had 22 waterholes, where volunteers were stationed to count whatever wildlife appeared during the 12-hour period. Assisting with the count for the third year were Earth Expedition teachers from Miami University along with our Earthwatch volunteers, CCF local and international interns, and Peace Corps volunteers.

We are also very excited with the development of our new Applied Bioscience Conservation Genetics Laboratory and the arrival in May of post-doc Dr. Anne Schmidt-Küntzel from Dr. Steve O'Brien's genetics laboratory in the United States. The lab will be set up to process scat (faecal) samples for DNA extraction and analysis. Many thanks to Michael Helms for his help in making the conservation genetics lab a reality through his continued communications with Applied Biosystems Inc. ABI)!

Livestock Guarding Dog Programme

CCF staff members Liz Lester and Gebs Nikanor continue to work with the farmers to monitor the working dogs. All the dogs are doing well, although one was re-homed due to a lack of proper care by the owner. At the same time, research and treatment on several dogs that have been diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma on the tongue has continued, with Dr. Axel Hartman from the Otjiwarongo Veterinary Clinic taking the lead. The new Kangal puppies from Holland are growing fast, now six and eight months old. One of our older breeding females was just bred, so we can plan for puppies in two months.

Sadly, our oldest breeding female and one of the founders of our dog programme, Zanta (at right, six years ago), had to be put to sleep due to age-related illnesses. She was 13 years old and had produced five litters and 54 litters number of puppies. Her daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughters are carrying on her legacy.

Education and Eco-Tourism

Visitors, farmers, volunteers and students are always welcome at CCF, and we have certainly kept busy on this front.

With the support of AGRA and the NAU/NNFU President's Committee, CCF has completed five major farmers' training courses in integrated livestock and predator management and financial management for over 100 emerging and re-settled farmers. We have also hosted nearly 200 students, including undergraduates from the Polytechnic of Namibia and international university groups from Rhodes, Emory and North Carolina State University.

We are currently conducting the first of two international courses. We are hosting more than 30 international conservationists from cheetah range countries for a two-week course on Integrated Livestock and Predator Management for extension officers and a month-long course on conservation biology and teaching CCF's programmes. We are eager to host these workshops and share our model cheetah programmes to expand cheetah conservation throughout the cheetah's range. These workshops are in cooperation with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Cheetah Regional Strategic Planning partners and the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park (NZP).

To our delight, the number of visitors to CCF continues to increase, and in the last four months alone, we have welcomed more than 2,250 international visitors, many of which enjoyed the special pre-booked activities we offer, such as the Cheetah Run or the Little Serengeti tours. In addition, the luxurious Babson Guest House has been in great demand. For information about our activities and the Babson Guest House, click here. We thank our Education staff, headed by Laura Linn, which includes Gabrielle, Steven, Michael, and Pricilla, and we welcome Esther Leenders who is training our staff in visitor relations and hospitality.

Several special guests have visited during the past few months, including the CCF USA's Chairman of the Board, Dr. Stephen O'Brien (at left with CCF Namibia's Chairman, Charles Bodenstein), who visited CCF in June, and CCF Canada Board Member and tour group leader, Carol Peterson in May.

Of course, our volunteers are the backbone of our activities. Since last April, over 24 Earthwatch volunteers have been with CCF for two-week periods, along with another 15 longer-term volunteers who stay with CCF between one and three months.

CCF's Annual Gala

"Reflections," CCF's 10th gala fundraising dinner, was held on July 26 in Windhoek. 300 guests enjoyed a candlelight dinner, live music, and a silent auction of items donated by our business community. CCF presented a series of awards at the dinner. Dr. Ian Player, one of the significant mentors in the establishment of CCF, was presented the Cheetah Conservationist of the Year Award for his lifetime of achievement, often against fierce odds, in the conservation movement around the world. The Cheetah Conservationist Farmer of the Year Award was presented to Andronicus Tjituka, an emerging farmer in the Hochfeld region, for his commitment to conservation farming. Finally, a special award in recognition of pioneering cheetah research in Namibia was presented to the late Friedrich 'Friedel' Gaerdes. His wife and children received the award on his behalf.

CCF in Kenya

CCF Kenya's renovation of four cattle dips in the Kiu area, designed to encourage sustainable farming, is having a great impact on the community only two years after implementation. CCFK Community Liaison Officer Lumumba (left, at community meeting) says the attitude of people who have lost livestock and their willingness to be interviewed has dramatically improved in the last year; he often gets thanked for our community work as well. With a donation from Eco-Sys, CCFK has purchased trees that are being planted in the areas with the two best-managed dips and has covered part of the cost of running piped water and building a water trough for the cattle to drink from (rather than the dam 500m away). CCFK has also finalized details of the National Census for a final report. More than 8500 data points on cheetah, other predators and prey species were collected in central and northern Kenya from June 2006 to September 2007. This data will fill in many questions on the distribution and status of cheetahs. Click here for more information on CCF Kenya's activities and newsletters.

On the Road

In May I received two special awards for my lifetime efforts in the field of cheetah conservation. I was honoured as the recipient of the Conservation Medal of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Zoological Society of San Diego for my 30 years of work with the cheetah and for my efforts in Africa to help ease local community conflicts with the cheetah (Photo - left). It is a great honour for me to be associated with other conservation medalists such as Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Attenborough and E.O. Wilson PhD, to name a few.

I was also given the Gold Medal Award from the Society of Women Geographers (SWG) at their Triennial Banquet in Chicago (photo - right). This huge honour has been presented to other amazing women including Amelia Earhart, Rachael Carlson, and Mary Leaky to name a few. The Society's President, Kimberly Crews, bestowed this honour on me for my innovative and pioneering contribution in the scientific field of cheetah research and survival. It was wonderful to share the SWG's award ceremony with CCF's General Manager, Bruce Brewer, and my parents. While I was in Chicago, CCF Orvis friend, Maureen Murtaugh, hosted a wonderful cocktail party for me at her home to celebrate my SWG award.

My fall 2008 tour is in the final development stages and we anticipate fundraising events in Atlanta, Washington, DC, Chicago, Portland, New York and San Francisco. Please check my calendar of events to join me at these events.

European Spring Tour

I tore through Europe at cheetah speed during May and early June, starting in Prague with a lecture at the Large Carnivore Conference at the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic. I then headed to Italy for three days to meet up with CCF's new fundraising partners, Luca and Christine Biddau of Associazione ASN, who organized a series of successful events, including lectures at the universities of Milan and Pavia.

In the United Kingdom, donors Nigel and Jennifer Whalley hosted a Champagne Ball at their Asbury Park Mansion with 130 guests. (At left with Namibian High Commissioner, H.E. George Liswaniso, and US Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr. Richard Lebaron).

Friends of Conservation (FOC) organised 'The Really Wild Picture Show' held over two evenings at The Gallery at The Troubadour, sponsored by the tour company Expert Africa. I enjoyed the opportunity to share CCF's latest news with new and old friends. It was also wonderful to meet FOC/CCF supporters Debbie Iliffe and Alison Ravano, who hosted lunches at their homes to introduce me to a wonderful group of people interested in learning about the cheetah and supporting our work.

My activities in Holland, hosted by the SPOTS Foundation, included a dinner with CCF corporate sponsor, VibroGym, an international company that manufactures exercise equipment based on the vibrations produced by the cheetah purr. I also spent time with Mustafa and Abdullah (at right), who donated two Kangal Livestock Guarding Dogs to CCF earlier this year.

I then travelled by train to Germany for a lecture at the Würzburg University on Cheetah Conservation in Namibia - a Model for the Future. An outcome of this talk is a planned trip with biology students from Würzburg to Namibia in 2009. My tour ended in Berlin (left), where I met with members of the German-African Foundation, the German Parliament, and strategic partners of the German-Namibian Society. These extremely important meetings took place thanks to the help of CCF Namibia's Board member, Jane Katjavivi, who was based in Berlin with her husband and former Namibian Ambassador to Germany, H.E. Amb. Peter Katjavivi.

Zoos are always near and dear to my heart, and during my trip to Europe I had the opportunity to visit and/or lecture at several of them, like the Chester Zoo, Paradise Wildlife Park and Eagle Heights in the UK; Beekse Bergen (which gave CCF a EUR5, 000 donation - see photo), Amersfoort and Arnhem in Holland; and the Frankfurt Zoo and Tierpark Berlin in Germany.

Big thanks to everyone in the United States and Europe who made all these events and meetings a success.

Holland: Cheetos' Chester adopts CCF's Chester

What do Cheetos Snacks have in common with the cheetah? More than you think. On all packages of Cheetos chips you can see Chester the Cheetah. Chester is very adventurous and loves excitement. But Chester is also concerned about his relatives, the wild cheetahs, who are threatened by extinction. To do something about this, Chester in Holland has adopted one of his wild cousins in Namibia, named Chester in his honour. Chester is one of CCF's 49 non-releasable cheetahs living at our Centre in Namibia. We are delighted to partner with a corporation whose logo represents a partnership with conservation.

About Chester

Chester came to CCF last January with his sister, when they were about 15 months old. They had been trapped on a livestock farm, without a mother. CCF was called after a month that the cubs had been in the trap cage. When we collected them, they were very underweight and in ill health; Chester had a bad fracture just above the knee. We think that as he followed his sister into the trap cage, the door fell, breaking his leg. It took us a month to get him into a healthy condition to undergo surgery. After a six-hour procedure, Chester's leg was repaired. A couple of months later, he underwent another surgery with our local Otjiwarongo Dentist, Dr. Profit, to extract a broken and infected canine tooth. Chester will not be able to return to the wild due to his leg injury, but will have a good life at CCF.

CCF and its Dutch affiliate, the SPOTS Foundation, are grateful for the cooperation with Cheetos Holland and its parent company, Smiths Food Group. All cheetahs living at CCF need care and attention. To sponsor one of CCF's non-releasable cheetahs, click here.

In Closing...

I could write an eLetter every week since so much is happening every day. But we must remember that we don't have much time if we want to ensure that the cheetah continues to run wild and beautiful. More importantly, none of our efforts would be possible without our dedicated staff and volunteers, and the support of all of our donors and funding partners. I cannot thank all of you enough for your important contributions to ensure that we can continue doing our job to save the cheetah from extinction.

Yours on behalf of the cheetah,

Laurie Marker, PhD
Founder and Executive Director
Cheetah Conservation Fund