Cheetah Conservation Fund: International Training Course

During the first week in December, I was asked to come provide some instruction at the Cheetah Conservation Fund's International Training Course. The CCF holds a month-long course for biologists/managers from around African and in Iran...biologists who will benefit from learning about management of predators, especially.

I provided some material on mark-recapture analyses and also a lecture on decision-making in natural resources. I've enjoyed my interactions with CCF and its staff this year. There are some exciting plans about working together on various projects in the future, including a goal of having graduate students from Namibia coming to UNL to do their MS or PhD degrees.

Here is a photo journal of my 2-day stay at CCF.

The road into CCF. The Waterberg Plateau is in the background. I arrived in the evening, and it was like a nature drive on the way to CCF.

A warthog stops long enough for me to take his photo on the way to CCF.

The full moon rises over the Waterberg Plateau.

So, I'm sitting in my room, preparing my mark-recapture lecture, and I hear a rustling at my window. Turns out it is inside my room, on the window. A little gecko. Little reminders you are in Namibia and not Nebraska.

The participants in the mark-recapture theory lecture (my lecture) got to go out and experience capture of cheetahs for real. We set this cheetah trap near a 'play tree' using the tree as the bait...the cheetahs want to go sit on the tree. Here, the students shovel sand and grass inside the trap to hide the wires and trip-treadle on the bottom.

Our group (half of the students) with our trap, ready to catch a cheetah. There were students from 7-8 African countries and Iran.

Another mark-recapture technique. The students set digital trail cameras to capture photos of cheetahs. The CCF's research staff then use unique patterns of spots to identify the wild cheetahs on the photos. I am helping them analyze this data set.

One last drive around the CCF "Big Field" before I leave. Some hartebeest bid me farewell.