Cheetah Soft Release in NamibRand, May 2010

In May 2010, three of our eight cheetah cubs started their journey back to the wild with a soft release in a specially made enclosure near our research base in NamibRand Nature Reserve. Here, volunteer Keith smith writes about their journey....

 

It was an early start as Jane, Paul and I, the three lucky volunteers experiencing this momentous occasion, met with two of N/a’an ku sê’s research co-ordinator’s, Christine and Lars, at 5:30am. Christine and Lars had travelled up from their research base in the Namibrand reserve a couple of days earlier for supplies and to pick up the cheetahs that they would be looking after and releasing in a few weeks time.

Once the vehicle was loaded with all of our rucksacks and supplies, we headed off to the cheetah enclosure to pick up the transporters containing the two male and one female cheetah. After residing with N/a’an ku sê over the past year, the three were finally old and strong enough to start their release back into the wild. The three were sharing a large enclosure with a further five juvenile cheetah and two older ones, Chiquito and Vasco. All of the cubs had been caught by farmers and were brought to us in early 2009 when they were fairly small and fluffy. They have grown a huge amount since this time and N/a’an ku sê have been careful to ensure that they remain wild in order to give them the best chance of survival back out in their natural habitat.

To start the journey into their new life, the conservation research team had safely set box traps in the main camp a few days earlier. We managed to get the two male cubs but the female was rather too wily and had to be darted by Marlice and Rudie. The cheetahs spent a day in the box traps to give them a bit of time to get used to it and to prevent them becoming too stressed out for the journey to come. 

That morning, the cheetahs were all looking well, so we hooked the trailer up and began our 600km journey to Namibrand. The trip was uneventful, although on stopping a number of times to check on the welfare of the cheetahs and refuel in our colourfully Land Rover, we received a lot of interest and funny looks from bystanders!

We finally arrived at the research base, Aandster, late in the evening, so we left the cheetahs in the transporters and got some rest ourselves. The next morning it was up early again to take them to their new 5 hectare enclosure where we placed the transport cage and opened the gates. All three seemed reluctant to leave at first but they eventually ran out of the cage into the furthest corners of the enclosure where they stayed out of view. We retired to a small observation hide on an opposite kopje and watched them start pacing the fence line. The NamibRand ranger had supplied us with a fresh carcass which we put in the enclosure and sat for the rest of the day watching them settle in until twilight arrived. 

The next morning we conducted a fence check, looking for signs of animal activity around the enclosure. We discovered that the carcass had not been touched so we decided to remove the legs and place them in the far end of the enclosure near to where the cheetah had been hiding during our presence. We then retired to our hide and eventually the cheetahs found the legs and began eating which was very good news. By the next day they had also eaten the whole carcass and found the water hole. Over the next couple of days we could see that they were getting more and more used to their new environment and the routine of us carrying out the fence check. As they began to relax they remained closer by, watching us instead of running away out of sight. A second carcass was put into the enclosure and this time there was no hesitation and most of it was gone by the morning.

We continued the same routine over the next few days and it was great to see them start to relax and enjoy their new surroundings; lying on the rocks looking out at the Springbok and Oryx in the valley below them. They quickly started to return to their natural behaviour of mutual grooming and the big male started to scent mark the enclosure which was a great sign that they were settling in. Sadly our stay at Aandster was over too quickly and we had to return to N/a’an ku sê, ready for the next group of volunteers to take over.

We hope that the cheetahs will continue to explore their new home, ready for their release in a few weeks time. After such an amazing experience I cannot wait to return and track them in the beautiful landscape of the NamibRand reserve.

If you would like to experience the excitement of tracking cheetah and leopard and getting involved with our conservation work, join our Carnivore Conservation volunteering programme and email bookingsnaankuse@iway.na