'STICHTING SPOTS' VISITS AFRICAT NORTH

Simone Eckhardt of Stichting SPOTS, Netherlands, visited AfriCat North for the first time since her fund-raising efforts have been put to good use – building community kraals and protecting livestock from marauding lions.

SPOTS, an animal charity based in the Netherlands, started out raising much-needed funds for 'the spotted cats', especially the Namibian cheetah; when Simone arrived at AfriCat North on a whistle-stop tour 18 months ago, she realized that lions, too, have spots … some individuals carrying their spots into maturity !

After travelling with me into the communal conservancies of the northwest, Simone was taken aback by the ever-increasing incidents of human-wildlife conflict on farmland: in these far-off wilderness areas, lions, especially, leave the Etosha National Park and other protected areas, moving onto farmland in search of easy prey. The farmers, understandably, see every lion as a threat to their livestock, setting snares, traps and using poison to alleviate their problem. In so doing, Namibia's small lion population loses alarming numbers to this conflict.

Without much ado, Simone set out raising funds through her own foundation, SPOTS, to support and uplift these farming communities, ultimately reducing the numbers of lions destroyed on farmland.

I visited SPOTS in April 2010, extending my stay due to the volcanic ash cloud! This was put to good as Simone introduced me to one of the Safari Parks who support the "spotted cats" of Namibia, as well as meeting many enthusiastic 'SPOTS' supporters.

Sincere thanks and heart-felt appreciation goes out to Simone and her team for her tireless fund-raising efforts in support of AfriCat's Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation programmes: GPS Collars for the Etosha Trans-boundary lion project (on order from South Africa in anticipation of the suitable individual) and funding 2 livestock kraals on communal farmland, one of which was sponsored by the Dierenpark Amersfoort Wildlife Fund.