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Moya at play

The following is a Q and A with Laurie Marker ~ founder of CCF
The Angel Fund helps to support CCF in it's effort to preserve this beautiful species for generations to come.

2/ How did you become involved with cheetahs?
I began working with cheetahs in 1974 at the Wildlife Safari Park in Winston Oregon.  The park had recently opened and they had just gotten cheetahs from the wild from Namibia.  I ran the veterinary clinic and nursery and the cheetahs which were off limits to the rest of the staff came under my care.  I wanted to learn as much as I could about them and everyone I contacted said let us know when you learn something about them.  This sparked my interest as people had had cheetahs as pets and royal property for over 5,000 years and yet they did not breed well in capitivity nor did they have a very long life.  So, that got me going.  The more I learned I wanted to share with everyone.  Under my direction and over the years, we developed the most successful breeding programme for cheetahs in North America.  I first came to Namibia in 1977 when I did a first of its kind research project here.  I brought a captive born cheetah to Namibia to see what steps it would take to teach a captive born cheetah how to hunt and live in the wild.  I raised a young cheetah, Khayam, and taught her to hunt in Namibia, but learned that for a cheetah learning how to kill was one thing but to learn how to live in the wild is something that the cheetahs mother teaches over a period of 20+ months.  So, Khayam learned how to kill but not to live in the wild.  I also learned about how the farmers were killing cheetahs right and left here and it was these cheetahs that already knew how to hunt and live in the wild that we should be putting our efforts into saving in the wild.   And, that there needed to be many more successes in captive breeding if we were going to look at using the captive population to assist the wild population.  The captive population was and to this day not self sustaining due to poor breeding success in captivity, but supported by imported wild cheetahs primarily from Namibiqa.

 So, after getting back to the US from Namibia I began working along with the American Zoo Association and helped develop one of the first Species Survival Plans for an endangered species and also then developed the Cheetah Studbook which is a registry of all cheetahs living in captivity as an assistance to captive breeding and management plans.  I was with the Wildlife Safari until 1988 at which time I joined the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo as the Director of a new programme called NOAHS Center (New opportunities in Animal Health Sciences).  I had been working with this team of researchers since 1982 when together we discovered the cheetahs lack of genetic variation which continues to be a problem for the species long-term health and survival.   I founded CCF in 1990 and moved to Namibia in early 1991.  I am still a NOAHS research fellow as well as the International Cheetah Studbook Keeper and a Co-vice chair for the IUCN Cat Specialist Group.

3/ What does CCF do that is unique among conservation programs?
 Our programmes are unique because we look at how the cheetah fits into the ecosystem where people are also living. We deal with both cheetahs and people together and try to find alternatives to lethal predator control by using research to basis our conservation programmes on.  Some of our programmes include the use of Livestock Guarding Dogs to assist farmers with small livestock like goats and sheep. These dogs, which we breed and donate to the farmers, live with the livestock and protect it against predators.  There are several other livestock management methods that we recommend to assist the farmers thus assisting the survival of the cheetah.  So, we try not to fight against the farming community but to join it and help them profit better by not killing cheetahs but practicing good livestock management.

4/ Why are cheetahs endangered?
 Cheetahs are mainly endangered because of loss of habitat due to the ever increasing human population especially in Africa.  With the population growth there is greater pressure on the needs of the people for the prey which is critical for the cheetah,  this is wild game.  As the game populations decrease there is more conflict wtih cheetahs preying on domestic livestock like cattle, goats and sheep.  Cheetahs don't do well in protected game reserves as the other larger predators (lions and hyenas) will kill their young and steal their kills, so the majority of cheetahs left  are found outside protected reserves on private land where there is little game (prey) due to people killing it for their own needs and the cheetah's only food is quite often livestock. So, in a nutshell, the cheetah is endangerd today due to humans.

5/ What will it take to save them?
By helping the people on who's land the cheetah is living to understand about the cheetah, through education.  Helping these people, most of whom are very poor to increase their income, helping to develop eco-tourism that will help support the people.  We have to help the people first and then help the cheetah, but it needs to be done fast and now!

6/ What is CCF doing to accomplish this goal?
 Our programmes in Namibia have shown that there are ways to live with the cheetah on your land but there needs to be a prey base.  So, we work on both livestock and wildlife management along with community and formal education programmes with the people on who's land the cheetah is living.  We have also developed an eco-tourism programme for our area of Namibia.  Our programmes are  integrated with research and conservation.  Our programmes have been so successful (although we're not done here yet) we have been asked to help farmers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya and Iran.  And, our programmes are being looked at as models for other predators which are in conflict with people.  We are non-confrontational and are trying to find ways so both people and the cheetah can live together. This means that we study systems that support both and how to integrate them together.  Its not an easy job!

7/ In a country such as Namibia, how far does money go?
Our money goes very, very far.  A US $1 is equal to 6 Namibian $'s.  Things are cheaper here so we can streatch money a long way............

8/ How important is the support from organizations such as the Angel Fund?
It is not only critical, this support has given cheetahs a chance for survival that they didn't have before.  The funds are helping to support the programmes in Namibia and our programmes are becoming models for other countries where cheetahs are in need.

9/ What makes cheetahs unique among wild cats?
The cheetah is the most unique of all the 36 species of cats due to a variety of physiological and morphological adaptataions.  The most unique is that it is the world's fastest land animal.  All facests of the cheetah's build are to allow the cheetah to run so fast, from its enlarged heart and other internal organs to its semi-retractable claws, which act as cleats to assist it in running.  The cheetah is the so unique in the cat family that it has been given its own genus called Acinonyx, and there is only one species in this genus, which is called jubatus - the cheetah we know.  There is nothing on earth that is like the cheetah!

10/ Can you share one of your brightest moments in your work with CCF.
 The first cheetah that we were able to release back into the wild!!!  And everyother cheetah that gets to go back into the wild.  I can't begin to explain what this feels like, but it makes all the hard work worth it.
 

11/ Is there any experience that comes to mind in working with a cheetah that really makes you laugh?
One that makes you cry?  Chewbaaka is our cheetah ambassador here in Namibia.  He was orphaned when he was 3 weeks of age and I hand-raised him.  He is used in educational programmes at our Centre and loves to meet people of all ages.  He also gets to go out into the bush and visit playtrees which are where cheetah males make their territories.  Chewbaaka has been going to play trees all his life as we check the trees that are on the farms around ours looking for freash cheetah sign (spoor and scat).  Chewbaaka climbs the trees and marks in them regularly.  Often people go to the trees and take pictures of him there.  One of the trees he goes to is very tall and more straight up versus the more common cheetah play tree which has a slope to it.  He was going into this tree when we had a National Geographic group photographing him and he fell out of the tree.  He looked at these people with there cameras and then looked at the tree and walked away.  From this time on if there are too many cameras, he won't go into that tree.  (he was very embarrased if cheetahs can be!)  It was very funny!

There was a mother and her three-six month old female cubs that the farmer allowed us to tag and release - that's four female cheetahs back into the wild!!!  About six months later a very bad farmer called us and told us he caught these cats with ear tags.  This farmer allowed us to visit the cheetahs collect blood samples and conduct our bio-medical and phyical exam on the cats, but he wouldn't let us let them back into the wild.  He kept them and as we drove away he told us that he was going to kill them.  Which he did.  This farmer just hates cheetahs, he is a game farmer and doesn't want the cheetahs to eat his wild game.
 

12/ What can we as individuals do to help?
We need people to be aware of the problems facing the cheetah.  The cheetah is Africa's most endangered cat and its future is in humans hands - we can allow this species to become extinct or we can stop it.  In order to continue our work in stopping this extinction process we need funds to keep our programmes going so that we can continue working with the people on who's land the cheetahs are living.  We need funds to expand our work into other countries where cheetahs are in need.  So, people can help support us through a variety of ways: 1) By making a direct donation ot our work, 2) by adopting a wild cheetah which supports our programmes, 3) by getting your communtiy or school involved in cheetah acitities, 4) by supporting your local zoo that has cheetahs and ask them to help support our programmes.

A very special thank you to Laurie Marker at CCF for answering questions and educating everyone on here about cheetah conservation.

Anyone interested in contributing to the Angel Fund can send donations to: Angel Fund c/o Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens 3400 Vine St., Cincinnati, OH 45220-1399. Credit Card Donations to Angel Fund (Visa or Mastercard)