Threats to Cheetahs & Cheetah Conservation

[Klipspringer]

Hardly any releases to the wild from sanctuaries, most of them are just tourism attractions.

There is a reason why the metapopulation management does not work with captive bred cheetah.

[Lisbeth]

That is also my impression from what I have read

[Richprins]

Established in 1971 by Ann and originally known as the De Wildt Cheetah Research Centre, the name was changed in 2010, to the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre as a tribute to the woman who has devoted her life to the survival of cheetahs and other rare and endangered species.

Two hour guided tours are offered daily, and on certain mornings guests have the option to book a cheetah run and guided tour package. The cheetah run offers an opportunity to witness a breath taking high speed cheetah chase. Tours are led by a knowledgeable guide and visitors to the Centre will see a variety of animals including cheetah, King Cheetah, African wild dog, caracal and vultures amongst others.

The Centre prides itself in its contribution to the conservation and survival of the cheetah species through meticulous breeding (ensuring genetic diversity) and the ability to release captive born cheetahs as and when suitable space becomes available. It has also played an important role in the academic arena and eighty research publications have been written and undertaken through the facility.

https://dewildt.co.za/

[Lisbeth]

The above is from the website of the Centre and thus cannot be judged 100 objective That does not mean that they have not managed to release a few animals into the wild as and when suitable space becomes available.

[Lisbeth]

Somaliland: East Africa’s largest conduit for illicit cheetah trafficking to the Gulf

By Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime• 12 October 2020


A cheetah cub receives care from representatives of Somaliland’s Ministry of Environment and Rural Development, in a village near Erigavo, Sanaag, in August 2020. According to reports, the cubs were being held by local farmers who surrendered them to the authorities, as the result of conflict with the mother cheetah near their livestock. (Photo: Twitter / Ministry of Environment and Rural Development)

A recent spate of cheetahs being seized in Somaliland has shown that the illicit demand for these animals remains strong. Cheetahs are highly prized as exotic pets in the Gulf states, and in supplying this market, traffickers have heavily impacted local cheetah populations in Africa, a situation compounded by the fact that many animals die en route.

In late July, two cheetah cubs were rescued from a 25-day ordeal at the hands of wildlife traffickers by the Awdal region police in Borama, a city in Somaliland not far from the Ethiopian border. Members of the local community helped look after the dehydrated and underweight cubs until the rescue team arrived. The cubs were then given care by Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) staff before being transported to a CCF safe house.


Two cubs rescued near Borama, 24 July 2020. The cubs had reportedly been in the hands of traffickers for 25 days before their rescue. (Photo: CCF)

These cubs were part of a series of recent seizures of cheetahs in Somaliland. Through July and August, 20 cheetah cubs were rescued over five missions jointly conducted by the ministry of environment and rural development, the Selel regional administration and the Somaliland police, with support from the CCF and Torrid Analytics.

On 14 September, two cheetah cubs were seized in the Sool region in the south-east: the youngest was only two weeks old. In total, 25 cubs have been reported as seized or rescued in Somaliland so far this year.


A six-month-old cheetah cub, in the care of Somaliland’s Ministry of Environment and Rural Development and the Cheetah Conservation Fund, en route to Hargeisa, 29 July 2020. The cub was one of eight rescued over three missions in Somaliland in late July. (Photo: Cheetah Conservation Fund)

Cheetah trafficking in Somaliland is not a new issue. Since 2010, when reporting became more consistent, there have been 193 rescued or surrendered cheetahs. Nearly a third of these occurred after the country ratified its Forestry and Wildlife Conservation Law in August 2018, which has reportedly led to increased awareness and better coordination between wildlife officials, police and the army.

Many of the cheetahs seized in Somaliland are believed to originate in Ethiopia, which shares an 800km border with the self-declared state. At least 25% of seized cheetahs in Somaliland have been found at or near the Ethiopian border – the two cubs intercepted near Borama in August, for example, were less than 15km from the border.

As known cheetah populations in Ethiopia total no more than 300 adolescent and adult specimens, it is clear that the trafficking of cubs is taking a significant toll on cheetah populations. Ethiopia and South Sudan, along with Somalia/Somaliland where cheetah populations are unknown, are also the last remaining stronghold of the North East African cheetah subspecies, Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii.

Cheetah cubs are mostly taken from the wild when the mother hides them to go hunting, either opportunistically by nomadic herders or by poachers. A cub can sell for between $200 and $300 in Somaliland, although prices vary greatly: an unhealthy cub can be bought for as little as $80, while a healthy, older cub can cost up to $1,000. The same cheetah can be sold for up to $15,000 in the Gulf states.

Mortality is high, as most cubs are removed from the wild at only two to eight weeks from birth and are subjected to maltreatment and poor nutrition in the hands of poachers and dealers, compounded with the rigours of the trip across the Gulf of Aden. While difficult to estimate, it is thought that more than 60% of cheetah cubs die before they reach the market to be sold.

Somaliland is vulnerable as a conduit for the illegal wildlife trade not only due to its proximity to the Arabian Peninsula’s wealthy consumer markets for exotic wildlife, but also due to the country’s rampant poverty, weak legal frameworks and a lack of environmental awareness.

Corruption also drives the cheetah trade. There are instances of illegally obtained cheetah cubs being sold back to smugglers by corrupt officials after a confiscation has been reported. That being said, Somaliland’s cheetah trade has been more extensively researched than other countries and regions of Somalia. Its relative importance as the main cheetah trafficking route into the Middle East might be in part connected to underreporting from other countries.

Across the Gulf of Aden

From Somaliland, cheetahs are transported by boat – hidden in hampers, crates or cardboard boxes – from the northern coastline across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen at an estimated rate of 300 cubs per year. The 140 nautical miles between the ports of Berbera in Somaliland and Aden in Yemen can be covered in just over seven hours at a dhow’s average speed of 20 knots.

Once in Yemen, cheetahs are reportedly transported by boat or road across the Saudi border to animal markets such as Al-Jazan or Al-Khouba, or delivered to Saudi traders, who will then offer them throughout the Gulf states to known buyers on ecommerce and social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, or, more recently, through private chat groups.

Research carried out by CCF researchers found that at least 2,000 cheetahs had been advertised online between 2010 and 2019. Most were found on Instagram, with sellers offering cheetahs in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.

Delivery to the UAE, Qatar or Kuwait from Saudi Arabia can be made by road or air. An investigative report published by Le Figaro quoted an employee at the Kuwait airport who stated that:

“It is enough to mention that they are ‘cats’ on the box and to pay certain people I know. It is easy for me because I work there and I know who will take the money. I give them between KWD500 and KWD1000 ($1,600–$3,200 to allow illegal animals (through the country).”

There have also been isolated reports of cheetahs arriving in Oman from Yemen, as well as being transported from Oman into the UAE via the Hatta border crossing.

An illegal status symbol

Cheetahs have long been popular household pets or hunting companions in the Gulf states, where they are viewed as status symbols. This popularity has been boosted in recent years by wealthy or famous individuals posing with their exotic pets on social media.

However, few cheetah owners know how to provide the proper care for these animals, with some social media posts advertising cheetahs that have been declawed – an extremely painful process for the animals.

Many pet cheetahs in the Gulf states do not live beyond the first year, and few live longer than five years, according to information collected by CCF.


CCF veterinarian Dr Asma Bile prepares cubs rescued from traffickers to make the journey to Hargeisa to the CCF safe house. (Photo: CCF)

Trade in wild cheetahs for commercial purposes is illegal in all the Gulf states, either through the states being party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) or through domestic legislation.

In December 2016, the UAE enacted a law banning the private possession of exotic and dangerous pets, although only one seizure (of four cheetahs) has been made since 2015, suggesting that the ban is seldom enforced.

In Kuwait, where no cheetahs have been seized in the past five years, the National Assembly approved a draft animal welfare law that penalises illegal trade or possession of predators in December 2015. In Qatar – where discussions continue over a law regulating the trade and ownership of dangerous animals – the ministry of municipality and environment announced the arrest of an Arab national in July 2016 for trading in cheetahs.

Under CITES regulations, however, captive-bred cheetahs can be traded commercially by registered facilities. The CITES trade database reports that 16 “captive-bred” cheetahs were exported into Armenia from Bahrain and the UAE between 2009 and 2015.

However, the probability that cheetahs in the Gulf (both those kept as pets and those exported) are truly bred in captivity or traded in compliance with national laws or CITES regulations is low.

First, only two such registered breeding facilities exist worldwide – both are in South Africa.

Second, cheetahs do not breed well in captivity. Based on information from the International Cheetah Studbook, a voluntary register of captive cheetahs worldwide, the first report of captive-bred cheetahs in the Gulf states was in 1994. Since then, six facilities have reported a total of 304 cheetah births in captivity, with a 31% mortality rate for cubs under six months.

No births have been reported by these facilities since 2016.

It is therefore more likely that purportedly “captive-bred” cheetahs in the Gulf come from elsewhere, as suggested by the “captive-bred” cheetahs exported from Bahrain to Armenia. There are no known cheetah breeding facilities in Bahrain, suggesting that the cheetahs’ real origins were masked.

A contentious issue

The issue of the illegal cheetah trade has been on the CITES agenda since 2013, when it commissioned a study that led to decisions and recommendations aimed at reducing demand and encouraging international collaboration. However, the 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP), held in August 2019, voted to delete these decisions based on a report from the standing committee to the secretariat.

The report concluded that the illegal cheetah trade was limited, based on official seizure reports from nine countries that cited 32 specimens (13 live, 19 parts or products) between 2015 and mid-2018. Based on this, the CoP agreed that matters related to the illegal cheetah trade could be addressed by a Big Cat Task Force, jointly run by CITES and the Convention for Migratory Species, which is currently in the process of being implemented.

However, Kenya and Ethiopia – two cheetah-range countries – argued that the numbers reported by CITES “underestimate the full extent of the trade, since they only include confiscated animals appearing in official records and omit data from many countries, including key primary source countries for trafficked cheetah”. They cited information showing 393 cheetah specimens (274 live animals and 119 parts), including the 32 seized specimens reported to CITES, during the same period.

The countries’ joint statement – submitted to the CITES CoP – went on to add: “Given the perilous state of [East African] cheetah populations that are the source of illegal trade, any ongoing trade in wild cheetah is alarming.”

The recent spate of seizures in Somaliland seems to confirm those fears. The illegal trade in wild cheetahs appears to be continuing apace, with potentially grave consequences for East African cheetah populations. DM

This article appears in the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime’s monthly East and Southern Africa Risk Bulletin. The Global Initiative is a network of more than 500 experts on organised crime drawn from law enforcement, academia, conservation, technology, media, the private sector and development agencies. It publishes research and analysis on emerging criminal threats and works to develop innovative strategies to counter organised crime globally.

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

At customs with the stuffed cheetah

A German citizen wanted to import it from Austria to Switzerland on behalf of a private individual, but it was seized from him at the St. Margrethen customs post.



A stuffed cheetah was seized at the end of October at the St. Margrethen (SG) customs post. A German citizen wanted to import it from Austria to Switzerland on behalf of a private individual.

Threatened or endangered animals may not be imported into Switzerland or only with a special permit. The same also applies to products obtained from these animals, the Federal Office of Customs and Border Security (UDSC) underlines today in a note.

The stuffed cheetah was in the German's private vehicle, who "duly declared" it to St. Margrethen customs. However, it was confiscated because the man did not have an authorization under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), also known as the Washington Convention.

There are a total of 184 countries that collaborate with CITES. In Switzerland, the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) is responsible for implementing the Convention. The SVP carries out controls at borders and on shipments of goods on behalf of the FSVO.

https://www.cdt.ch/news/in-dogana-con-i ... ato-301210

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

WHY THE CHEETAH PAW?

CLIVE WALKER, FOUNDER OF THE EWT

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

“An Endangered species which has declined through loss of range, the insidious fur trade and shooting due to stock predation.”

The choice of the Cheetah as the EWT’s logo was an obvious one for me. My first encounter with this graceful, swift feline was as a game ranger in Bechuanaland in 1966. I came across a young, tame female in the garden of a farmer. Her mother had been killed because of predation on the farmer’s sheep before he realised she had a young cub with her. The cheetah was on a chain attached to a long wire, and she had the run of the large lawn. I got right up close to her and was deeply struck by the beautiful large eyes and the continuous purring sound.

My next encounter was after visiting the Africana Library on Diagonal Street in downtown Johannesburg one Saturday afternoon in 1972. I was horrified to spot cheetah skins hanging like washing on a line in a ‘muthi’ shop. Even more so when the owner was happy to sell me one and advised me he could get more. The memory of it was etched in my brain as I thought back to my first encounter in Bechuanaland. I continued to prepare for an exhibition scheduled for October of the same year and included in my subjects a pair of cheetahs with the objective of following David Shepherd’s idea of a print appeal and at my own cost had 250 prints produced and announced as a CHEETAH APPEAL as James Clarke of the STAR newspaper opened the exhibition at the Lister Art Gallery in Bree street, Johannesburg on 1 October 1973. James was later to become a founding trustee of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. All numbered prints were sold at R20.00 each. After printing expenses, the appeal raised a nice sum of R4,500 to be donated for cheetah conservation.

As I write this today, in 2023, the cheetah is considered vulnerable, and with the transformation of the wildlife industry, it is in a far better position today than back in 1973, thanks in no small part to the work of the EWT and private landowners.

The original logo was adapted from the publication by the Late Dr Rheay Smithers, Mammals of Southern and Northern Rhodesia. Whilst accurate in dimension, the original paw lacked the small indentation between the back pad. This was rectified during Dr Ledger’s time after I retired in 1985.

[Lisbeth]

Protecting cheetahs, island style — how Eastern Cape park plays vital role in mimicking natural migration


The cheetah’ cubs begin to move towards their mother after re-collaring by the SANParks team in the Mountain Zebra National Park on 2 May 2024 (Photo: Julia Evans)

By Julia Evans - 07 May 2024[/size]

Once absent for more than a century, the iconic predator, the cheetah, have returned to their historical grounds, albeit within a carefully managed ecosystem that aims to mimic natural migration, highlighting the need to expand our protected areas and create corridors between them.
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‘Historically, in any sort of natural landscape, animals would have been able to move across that landscape freely, from one area to another,” said Dr David Zimmermann, SANParks veterinarian.

But over time humans’ influence on the environment started to seep into the natural landscape, he explained – hunting and using animals, habitat loss through development of agriculture, roads and buildings that either extirpated animals from their natural habitat, or blocked their path to migration.

“And so now, what you’ve got are smaller protected areas, which are actually just little islands within the bigger landscape.”

Zimmermann was speaking to Daily Maverick from the Mountain Zebra National Park, just outside Cradock in the Eastern Cape, where more than 130 years ago cheetahs resided, and were able to roam freely across the plains of the Karoo.

Today, cheetah populations are confined to just 9% of their historical distributional range, and are classified as vulnerable on the IUCN’s Red List.


SANParks veterinarian, Dr David Zimmermann, about to inject the antidote to bring the cheetah out of sedation after her collar was replaced. (Photo: Julia Evans)


A SANParks vet checks the health of a cheetah’s teeth while under sedation. At four and a half years old, this cat’s teeth are still in good condition. (Photo: Julia Evans)

While South Africa is the only country worldwide that has seen considerable growth in wild cheetah numbers, with its population increasing from an estimated 400 individuals in 1965 to between 1,100 and 1,700 now, globally cheetahs are in decline, decreasing by 600 in the past eight years.

As part of South African National Parks’ (SANParks) policy to reintroduce wildlife species to areas where hunting or habitat loss forced them to local extinction, in 2007 the Mountain Zebra National Park reintroduced two male and two female cheetahs into the park after being absent for more than a century.

But the absence of competing predators initially led to a rapid increase in cheetah numbers, causing the herbivore populations (such as the mountain reebok), originally naive to predation, to crash.

“Before we knew it we had an unsustainable population of cheetahs,” said Zimmermann.

Along with this, there was a great need to prevent inbreeding and genetic stasis of this growing population in a confined and protected area.

“These small parks, it’s not a natural system,” explained Zimmermann. “It’s fenced, the animals can’t migrate, they can’t run away from predation. So, by managing the predators we get to try to manage that process.”

He said that, in the natural system herbivores would be able to escape predation, leading to animals moving across the landscape, and predator populations wouldn’t become as big.

“So we’ve got to manage these populations and putting collars on gives us a handle on our predator populations.”

Along with introducing lions into the park – so the cheetah would have a competing predator – in 2010 and 2011 a total of 13 cheetahs that had been born in the park were relocated to other reserves.


SANParks veterinarian, Dr David Zimmermann, checks the vitals of CJ the cheetah during the fitting of a new tracking collar while she’s sedated. After wild cheetahs have been darted, a blindfold is put on to protect their eyes. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Allison Muller, a double doctorate candidate in conservation ecology at Stellenbosch University and Groningen University, said tracking collars are a vital tool in wildlife conservation, offering essential insights into the animals’ space use, activity patterns and potential threats.

“These collars assist reserve management teams in controlling and managing populations, act as early warning systems for escaped animals, and mitigate potential human-wildlife conflicts.”

The park is an important contributor to the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Cheetah Metapopulation Project (now known as the Cheetah Range Expansion Project) which was launched in 2011 and aims to increase cheetah numbers, reduce cheetah-human conflict and create genetically diverse cheetah populations.

Zimmermann explained that metapopulation management comes from island biology.

“If can imagine in the ocean there’s a population of birds on one island and a population of birds on another, the only way they can link is to fly from one island to the next,” he said, adding that these fragmented “metapopulations” are separated, but the overall population is still connected.


SANParks field guide Andrew Frolick uses a radio telemetry set to pick up the VHF (very high frequency) transmitter from a cheetah’s collar in Mountain Zebra National Park. (Photo: Julia Evans)

But the problem is our landscape, we are managing protected areas – they’re not connected anymore – because of us humans. We’ve created that fragment, and animals can’t move across the landscape from one park to the next.

“So, we mimic that, by moving animals from this park to the next.”

Overall, the Mountain Zebra National Park has contributed 35 cheetahs to the greater metapopulation, including to important range expansion projects within southern Africa, with cheetahs going as far as Malawi and Zambia.

SANParks said removing and bringing in cheetahs to the Mountain Zebra National Park is done strategically with consultation among the Endangered Wildlife Trust, park management and SANParks’ ecologists. This ensures genetic and demographic integrity of the respective populations are maintained, thus ensuring the conservation value of this population.

Management costs money

Today, the park is home to eight cheetahs – four adults and four cubs who are 10 months old. CJ, the mother to the cubs, needed her tracking collar to be changed because the battery was about to die. Thanks to Martine and Anthony Armstrong, the park was able to fund a new one.

“To manage populations, to manage animals, costs money,” noted Zimmermann, adding that while collaring the cats is mainly for management purposes, it does have the added benefit of generating more tourism and revenue, which can go back into conservation.

The Mountain Zebra National Park is the only national park in South Africa that offers cheetah tracking as a tourist activity – where tourists can get up to 40m from one of the four adults that are tracked in the park. Park manager Evans Mkansi said they rotate which cheetah they go to see so the animals are not seeing humans every day.

Muller, whose doctorate research is focused on free-roaming cheetahs in southern Africa, said that “this interaction builds public support for these practices and helps tourists appreciate the delicate balance of the ecosystems they observe, making their experience more meaningful and impactful”.

Muller added that while the benefits of collaring are significant, “it’s absolutely vital that this practice is carried out ethically and correctly to ensure the welfare of the animals always comes first”.

Vuyani Dial, the hospitality services manager for the park, said that through activities alone – including game drives, guided walks, bird watching, cheetah tracking – the park brought in R1.2-million in 2023/24 financial year. Most of this was from cheetah tracking.

“The cheetah tracking, we always say it’s a cash cow,” said Dial, smiling. Every day there’s a booking for cheetah tracking.

SANParks is subsidised by the government (15% to 20%) but gets most of its revenue from bookings. As Zimmermann said, conservation is expensive, and while the four adult cats are collared – thanks in part to private donation – Mkansi said they currently don’t have the funds to collar the four cubs. Tracking collars can cost north of R40,000, depending on the technology.


Thanks to the conservation efforts of farmers in the area when Mountain Zebra National Park was first proclaimed in 1937, a small herd of the endangered Cape mountain zebra survived, providing the founder population of zebra, which the park is now known for (Photo: Julia Evans)


The tourist cottages in the Mountain Zebra National Park, about 12km outside Cradock in the Eastern Cape. (Photo: Julia Evans)

The Armstrongs told Daily Maverick that their family has always been passionate about wildlife, and avid SANParks fans since the early 1990s.

“The park is doing a fantastic job conserving South Africa’s biodiversity – the cheetah population in particular – and we wanted to do our bit to help preserve them for future generations,” they said.

“We first ‘met’ CJ’s mom Angela in 2018 and have eagerly followed the family’s story over the years. It’s been so great to hear all the success stories of these beautiful predators, and catch glimpses of some of them on our visits. We think CJ has made her mom Angela and father Mabula proud by successfully raising her first litter of four. We’re honoured and privileged to be a small part of this amazing story.”

Corridors of connectivity

Another important step in managing ecosystems and populations is to expand protected areas, and to create corridors so animals can move between them.

The first UN State of the World’s Migratory Species report highlighted that less than 10% of protected land is presently connected and warned that isolated protected areas may still lead to genetic stasis.

Read more in Daily Maverick: World’s migratory species in free-fall but plans under way to mitigate human harm

South Africa, along with 195 other nations party to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity treaty, committed to protect 30% of our land and seas by 2030. Right now, only 9.8% is considered formally protected (like national parks).

Read more in Daily Maverick: SA needs to preserve the equivalent of Kruger Park each year to meet UN goals

Along with expanding our protected areas – which would mean the Kruger National Park and a bit every year to hit the UN target – we need to link these areas with corridors.

“It’s not clear cut,” said Zimmermann, explaining that it’s not just fences blocking animals’ paths, but roads they wouldn’t want to cross and mountain ranges that they wouldn’t have historically crossed. “But it’s important to try and create those corridors.”

Rhian Berning, CEO of the Eden to Addo Corridor Initiative, highlighted that in South Africa we have some great corridor projects under way – the Tankwa Karoo to Cederberg Wilderness corridor, the Camdeboo to Mountain Zebra corridor, the Addo to Great Fish River corridor and the Eden to Addo corridor.

“Just for a moment cast your mind back to imagine the phenomenal migrations that must have coursed through our country – elephant, springbok, zebra, cheetah – all moving in their thousands,” she said.

“And while we can’t necessarily restore those major migrations, we can enable connectivity again, between protected areas and areas of ecological significance, nature corridors that allow essential life-giving processes to flow again.” DM