My two weeks on the research team at N/a’an ku sê in February were an adventurous,
practical learning and life changing experience, writes volunteer Charlotte Seitz from Switzerland.
The main focus for the research team was the capture of a pair of cheetah brothers, which had been
killing calves on one of N/a’an ku sê's neighbouring farms. The bordering cattle farm
is one of N/a’an ku sê research grounds and they work closely with the farmer Frederick.
Our main task was setting up box traps around marking trees in the area. Our coordinator of research,
Florian, explained that marking trees are evergreen trees with non-vertical main trunks, large
horizontal branches, and a clear surrounding for easy access. Female cheetahs use them when on
heat; scratching against the branches and defecating on them to mark them to attract males.
We spent a morning cutting thorn bushes/branches to position them in the shape of a 'kraal' around
the trunk of a well used marking tree, leaving space for the box trap. Cheetahs hate thorn trees so
are left with the only option of walking through the trap to get to their marking tree. We set up
four traps like that and one differently, positioned at the location of the last calf kill. Here,
the trap was placed directly next to a holding cage, in which we put a goat (we named him Gerald!)
as "bait", so that his bleating would attract cheetahs. Every morning we drove out to the
neighbouring farm to check the box traps… and to check on Gerald. Unfortunately we were not
successful in catching any cheetahs, but caught many warthogs, an aardvark, a leopard tortoise and
Gerald caught a cold!
Checking the box traps became our daily morning task with our afternoons spent either on the farm,
listening to interesting presentations on large carnivore releases and snakes or out in the field
carrying out spoor counts (tracking and recording of large carnivore prints) and game counts for
the research projects. As soon as a track was found and identified, generally by Gogga, a
traditional Bushman tracker and a loyal companion of our research team, the coordinates of the
track location were entered on a data sheet as well as into a GPS device. We did manage to spot the
cats out on a spoor count one afternoon, the two boys were big and Flo estimated their ages at
about 6-8 years.
Another important job was to build the cheetah holding camp on the farm near the other research
animals. Research animals are those that temporarily stay at N/a’an ku sê, until they
can be collared and released back into the wild and monitored.
They come to N/a’an ku sê mainly from farmers who catch them on their land and who would
otherwise shoot them. It was an exciting and satisfying project and after two afternoons of hard
work the holding camp was "ready for occupation".
Less than three days after the camp completion one of the neighbouring farms called as a cheetah
had got caught in one of their traps. Although the young (14-18 month) male cheetah should not have
been caught in the first place, as it was not a problem animal (ie a known livestock predator), our
research team leaders Cila and Flo along with Marlice and Rudie, decided to bring the juvenile cat
over to the farm. We transported the nervous cat up to the holding camp where the transport cage
was positioned so that when the gate opened, he could run directly into the new holding camp. After
locking the gate of the enclosure we decamped as quickly as possible to not cause further stress
our new arrival.
A few days later the young male cheetah was darted by Rudie and while unconscious, tagged on the
ear and prepared for the release by the research team. This included exact measuring, weighing,
taking of temperature, and injections to prevent infections on the tagged ear. It was such a great
experience to be in the clinic on the farm to watch this exciting event. The cheetah was put into a
transport cage, where he was able to wake up overnight ready to be moved to the release location
the next day.
The release was an experience of a life time. From the moment the transport cage was put on the
truck and driven to the release site, to the second the young male shot out of the cage into
freedom, we all held our breaths and enjoyed this incredible event. I filmed the few seconds that
it took from the opening of the cage gate to the cheetah disappearing in the bushes. My heart was
beating so strongly I thought I would be able to hear it on the film! I am so glad I got to be part
of such a wonderful, impressive, and significant event. It was an amazing moment to see the cheetah
disappear into the green savanna.
My N/a’an ku sê experience has been such a great adventure and sharing in Marlice and
Rudie's dream has definitely changed my life. I learned new things, met great people from all over
the world and I will certainly be coming back!
