AFRICAT FOUNDATION

AFRICAT'S HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT MITIGATION PROGRAMME:

RESCUE & RELEASE …. ARE WE MAKING A DIFFERENCE?

Habitat loss is one of the largest threats to the large carnivore populations in Namibia. Commercial livestock and game farms number over 7000, cover approximately 355 000 km2, and communal land covers an estimated area of 125 000 km². With the majority of leopards and cheetahs occurring in these parts of the country, the resulting conflict between these predators and farmers protecting their livelihood is inevitable. In addition, the areas of natural habitat where these animals can safely exist have been reduced dramatically.

General predator removal in the form of trapping, poisoning & shooting on sight, are the most common "livestock-protection methods" practiced by farmers, who view most predators as 'problem animals'. In most cases an individual animal is responsible for stock losses and not the species in general. This indiscriminate removal leads to the unnecessary elimination of many innocent animals.

Since its inception, AfriCat’s mission statement is 'to keep wild carnivores wild'. Established in 1992, the AfriCat Foundation began assisting and advising farmers on the effective livestock protection methods practiced by the Hanssen family on their farms during the 60’s, 70’s and 80s; their livestock losses to Cheetahs & Leopards were drastically reduced through 'kraaling' (penning) small calves, the use of herdsmen and guard dogs.

As a direct result of their successful livestock protection methods, farmers would contact the Hanssens, which led to their visiting livestock as well as game farms, armed with advice not rifles! AfriCat soon established a good rapport with a number of farmers, providing the opportunity to create awareness about predator conservation, promote ecologically-sound farm-management practices and effective farm-management techniques.

However, despite concerted efforts few adopted these tried & tested solutions and AfriCat soon became the easy way out – 'problem' Cheetahs & Leopards were caught in cage traps and AfriCat was called to collect!

AfriCat was soon faced with a dilemma – what to do with the Cheetahs & Leopards taken off these farms?

All animals were examined - some were injured and needed care and minor wounds treated immediately.

Those with serious injuries were taken to AfriCat Welfare (the Carnivore Care Centre), where a Veterinarian was consulted. Over time, the resultant number of 'captive' carnivores increased, with little or no options for release. Food and medical care costs rose to astronomical amounts and thanks to the AfriCat supporters, funding could be sourced for their continued upkeep. The problem, however, remained that with the calls from farmers, the numbers of carnivores at AfriCat Welfare continued to grow. In essence, detracting from our mission statement, 'to keep wild carnivores wild'!

However, a number of Cheetah & Leopard collected off farms were healthy enough to be released shortly thereafter. Where the farmer was in agreement, the animals were released at the place of capture. Otherwise, they were relocated to appropriate areas, usually within a day of their rescue. If recuperation time was needed, they were held temporarily at AfriCat until fit enough for release.

Data is collected and a record kept of every animal that moves through the AfriCat Prgrammes. This data provides information on where each animal was caught, the reason for its capture, as well as its characteristics, such as sex, age (from tooth-wear), measurements, weight, etc. Blood samples are also taken. Analysis of these samples gives us some insight into the health and the genetic make-up of the wild populations of these animals. All the animals are marked with a microchip, enabling easy identification should individuals be recaptured in the future.

2010 saw a change in approach to the ad lib release of carnivores.
We have rescued and saved the lives of more than a thousand animals from farmland, of which 85% have been released back onto commercial farmland, but this time into new territories, belonging to others!
In their new 'territories' they need to either fight for their new home or run the 'gauntlet' of the farmers’ traps and guns, back to their former territory. We are therefore uncertain as to how many of the released carnivores survive this re-location beyond one year!

There are approximately 2 500 cheetahs and 3 500 leopards in Namibia and we have on average collected 50 cats per year. We have therefore only dealt with 0.8% of the wild population per annum in our rescue and release programme. The Rescue & Release programme was only a by-product of our initial plan to help the farmer deal with carnivore conflict! As we mentioned before there are approximately 7 000 commercial farmers in our country and we’ve only been able to deal with an average of 18 farmers per year. Therefore, only 0.26% of the farming community have called us for help and all four ‘Namibian–based carnivore organisations’ have only managed to deal with about 1% of the farming community on an annual basis.

This is WHY, if we wish to be part of the long term survival of carnivores on Namibian Farmland, we need to revise our strategy every few years.

Once funds are available, carnivores will be released back onto farm-land ONLY when we can link this release to a research project including a group of neighbouring farms, hereby creating a larger 'SAFE' area for the newly released carnivores; a researcher will be based in this area and the released individuals will be collared. This will enable AfriCat to monitor their post-release movements and adaptability.

In this way, AfriCat will be able to establish the effectiveness and long-term sustainability of their Rescue & Release, Rehabilitation and Relocation Programmes.