Surprising information gathered from cheetah tracking in Namibia

Cheetahs fitted with satellite collars (c) Na an ku se

May 2012. The N/a'an ku se Carnivore Conservation Research Project is a new project focused on conserving the land, cultures and wildlife of Namibia and rescuing cheetahs, leopards and brown hyena who are threatened by an ever-shrinking habitat.

Cheetah collared
Recently the project released a cheetah names Boris, back into the wild. Boris was trapped and taken to N/a'an ku se's wildlife sanctuary in May 2011, after he had been hunting game repeatedly on a small game farm in the Windhoek area. Boris was released back into the wild with a fitted radio collar which transmits GPS co-ordinates daily to the project to assist them in tracking his movements.

Living amongst livestock but hunting wildlife
The collar has helped the project identify that Boris has moved into areas where livestock farming is prevalent causing some anxiety amongst some local farmers. Fortunately, Boris ignored the goats and sheep and instead hunted springbok. The co-ordinates generated indicate that Boris prefers mountain bases, going against what most would have expected of a lone male.

The money which Action for the Wild donates to the N/a'an ku se Carnivore Conservation Research Project will help the project continue with its cheetah relocation work, and provide the funds needed to purchase 3 new radio collars to allow the project to check on the movements of any released cheetahs, just like Boris. The collars will also help to understand more about cheetah ecology.

The N/a'an ku se Carnivore Conservation Research Project is a new project supported by Colchester Zoo's Action for the Wild charity.

For further information on this project or to find out how you can help please visit www.actionforthewild.org.

Map showing the latest movement of Na'an ku se's first released cheetah into the wild (c) Na'an ku se Research Project