Getting Familiar with CCF's operation

     The second week at CCF provided me with the opportunity to work with a couple of their staff professionals, Caroline and Rob.  I assisted Caroline during a few treks to the field to conduct cheetah tracking and scat detection.  To track cheetahs pre-set cameras are checked by recovering memory cards.  Among the sixteen cameras we checked, anywhere from 171 to 934 photos were taken.  Movement within the picture field triggers the camera's sensor.  The memory card is downloaded at CCF to see if cheetahs visited the area.  Most of the cameras are set up at "cheetah play trees," which are trees easily climbed by the cheetah. Cheetahs are known to mark such trees and revisit them frequently.  Also, on differing occasions a specialized dog trained in scat detection accompanied us to the bush.  Two particular dogs, Isha, a female Anatolian Shepherd and Finn, a male Border Collie took part in these exercises.  The dogs are trained to detect the Cheetah scat and to alert the accompanying staff handler.  The dog is set up with a GPS collar in order to mark the location wherever scat is detected.  These two methods assist CCF in tracking and recording Cheetah movement and numbers in the area over long periods of time.  In so doing certain cheetah behavior can be understood.
     I also traveled throughout much of CCF's bush with Rob who is CCF's rhino tracker.  Rob is the resident rhino expert charged with the responsibility of tracking and protecting the five current rhinos living on CCF farmland.  They fall under the umbrella of CCF's overall conservancy strategy.  These are black rhinos which are endangered.  Much like Caroline and her cheetah tracking, Rob monitors pre-set cameras also at locations frequently visited by the rhinos.  The more prominent locations are in vicinities close to large water holes that are closely guarded by contiguous brush.  The black rhino is more difficult to find, since it, as opposed to the larger white rhino, prefers to stay within the protection of thicker bush lands.
     That's about it for week two at the Cheetah Conservation Fund here in Namibia.

Until next, from Cheetah Land
Ron Marks