'Indian cubs a sign of Project Cheetah's success'
Secure genetic pool
Marlice van Vuuren of the N/a’an ku sê Foundation believes that the cheetah cubs born in India as part of Project Cheetah are a sign of the project’s success, despite the death of an eleventh cheetah about two weeks ago.“Animals can control and determine in the environment whether they can have cubs. If it is not a suitable environment, they will not have cubs, because they have to take care of those cubs. If the cheetahs that were released in India start having cubs, you can already tick a lot of boxes and say it is starting to work. And not just one litter has been born, there have been many litters,” she said in conversation with Kletskompas.
Van Vuuren said there is no manual that can give direction to resettlement projects like Project Cheetah. “As you start rehabilitating animals, we write the textbook. We have to take into account that they are like us humans. They differ individually, they have underlying illnesses that you don't know about. Then you put them under stress and a disease pops up that you don't know about because you don't have a history."
She said the success of resettlement projects can be seen when an animal starts hunting and has young and, in the case of social animals, makes friends. "There are going to be mistakes, but if that animal wasn't shot, wasn't poisoned and didn't die in conflict, then it already ticks a lot of boxes in my conservation mind, because those are the problems we're facing in Namibia."
For conservation
According to Van Vuuren, the way in which conflicts involving cheetahs are handled is a threat to the species' survival.
"Namibia has the largest population of wild cheetahs, but we won't be able to wave that card for much longer because we're not controlling our conflict," she said.
The dwindling population figures are evident in the fewer requests for assistance. "We used to get calls at least twice a month about conflict with cheetahs; we might get two a year now. Where have the cheetahs gone? Have they become fewer? Have we made it too difficult from a regulatory point of view that people don’t want to call anymore, because they can get in trouble, or do they just shoot and keep quiet?”
Should Namibia stay on this path, it will be of utmost importance to secure the genetics of Namibian cheetahs elsewhere, such as in India.
“Your problem is going to be that this iconic species is going to go extinct, because we can’t control it. We have 6 000 left in the world. We’re going to have to look outside where there are areas where you can secure a genetic pool and be sure they’re not going to get into conflict – and if they do get into conflict, that it can be controlled,” Van Vuuren said.
Watch the full interview today at 12:30 on Kletskompas on NTV, DSTV channel 285 and GoTV channel 25, or on oneuptwo.com. The program repeats tonight at 20:00. – [email protected]