November Cheetah and Wild Dog Update 2010
Saying good-bye to another rehabilitated cheetah – Scully:
SCULLY was injured by a warthog mid Nov, but the injury was not that severe. We immediately took her to the Otjiwarongo veterinary clinic, where the decision was made to keep her next to Mulder to lessen the stress levels. Sadly complications that had nothing to do with her injury set in and she suddenly stopped eating. The vets were stunned and no one knows what happened?
Hopefully we will have the autopsy results by the next update.
The Siblings:
HAMMER, BONES, SPUD & COCO made 4 kills in one week. On the 4th & the 6TH they caught a baby eland. On the 9th they caught a fully grown male kudu and on the 10th they caught a hartebeest.
An interesting observation has been the LACK OF INTEREST shown in hunting warthogs by the Siblings – a previous bad experience perhaps? Soon we will be adding a video clip of a family of 3 warthogs teasing the 4 – with absolute no interest in them as a potential meal shown by the cheetah. . . watch this space!
Mulder MULDER is back from the vets and doing well. During his release back into the reserve he briefly reunited with his group, and the next day they were still together, but he has now ventured off on his own, leaving TINTIN & ABBEY to fight for themselves. Both Tintin & Abbey are very successful and caught a duiker and a warthog on the 7th and a kudu on the 8th. Again on the 10th they had a young kudu, which just proves how often and how successful cheetahs hunt.
Before Scully died - the interesting thing about this group was the way they split up and then come together again a day or two later. Abbey has left the group twice (4th & the 7th) and before Scully was injured, she also once went off on her own. (9th – 10th - 4km’s away from the others) The 10th of November was also the first day our guests got to track this group since their release on the 25th of October. Although Hammer was still at the vets and Scully somewhere else – they had a great sighting and saw 2 of them on a small warthog kill. By the 11th Nov – Scully had joined them again.
It’s incredible how they find each other after splitting up every now and then - as they can be up to 10km apart at times?!
CHARLIE & TRISH are still hanging around Northdam and we only recorded one kill for the week which was a young kudu on the 9th. Both are fit and healthy.
TONGS who still moves on his own had a steenbuck kill on the 9th close to Damlise. It seems Steenbuck/steenbok are his favourite meal.
TWIGGY – also on her own and we saw her with a Duiker on the 11th near Solardam.
We have no record of any kills lately made by CYCLOPS – but our ‘one-eyed’ wonder boy is in great condition, so he must be looking after himself.
ZEN, ZIPPY & TOBI on the other hand, have had a very ‘visual’ & successful 2 weeks, following a large group of 30 plus eland around the main road. They have caught 4 calves in 6 days. The only time they left the eland heard was when they caught an adult kudu which gave the eland a break for a few days.
The Painted Dogs:
They spent the end of October and the 2nd and 3rd of Nov in the far north section of the reserve – but were back at Alcatraz by the 4th – their favourite spot in the 16 000ha reserve! On the 4th we saw them on a young kudu kill, but by the 6th we felt they needed a little booster to their diet and gave them a few small pieces of meat, but on the 7th their stomachs were full and their faces showed evidence of a successful kill, although they were fed on the 6th.
On the 10th we again found them on an oryx kill in the western section of the reserve. These dogs were released into the reserve on 11th September and we are still subsidising part of their diet. They do seem to be more successful at their hunts and are catching on fast, but it’s definitely been a tougher ride for them than for the cheetah. We now only feed them when we feel they have really dropped weight, and need a top-up.
Alcatraz – which as you know by now was their home for the last year, has recently been closed off and the water point has been moved outside of their old home. That umbilical cord needs to be cut at some time . . .
Due to the bush-clearing project we started last year – the newly created savannah-looking ‘open-ness’ on either side of the main entrance road (once in the 16 000ha reserve) – has now become the favourite hunting ground for most of the cheetah groups. This has made for wonderful sightings by our guests on their way to Okonjima or on their way out. More and more of our guests are reporting seeing them hunting, stalking or just lazing around near the road.
A reminder to all just how important it is to drive slowly when entering any nature reserve.
This is also proof that the open & more savannah-looking areas are the preferred environment for cheetah, and perhaps also why the mountainous 4000 ha reserve seemed more challenging than the flatter and more open 16 000ha Okonjima reserve.
This cleared & open environment of course only works in the cheetah’s favour, when MAN is not their enemy, but instead their admirer.
Bush-encroached areas might not make the hunt easier on most farmland, but over the last century the ‘thickets’ have protected the cheetah, leopard and other Namibian predator populations from man– which is always the dominant and most destructive hunter of all.
The Okonjima & Africat Team
