Colchester Zoo’s Action for the Wild has supported the N/a'an ku sê Foundation since 2012 and has, to date, donated £19,225 to support their carnivore research programme, with another £4,984 pledged for July 2017.
In March, the Rapid Response Unit received six carnivore-human conflict calls. Of the six calls, there were two reported cheetah conflicts, two leopard conflicts, one spotted hyaena conflict and one African wild dog conflict. Three of the calls reported captured carnivores and the other three calls were requests for advice.
On 19th March, the Rapid Response Unit received a call from a farmer regarding two cheetahs in a capture cage. The farmer was adamant about not having carnivores in his game camp as that may result in valuable game losses. On 21st March, the team went to pick up the cheetahs and bring them to N/a’an ku sê where they are to be accommodated temporarily until a release site has been finalized. On 22nd March they received a call from the same farmer, stating that he caught a third cheetah that was walking with the two cheetahs picked up on 21st. On 24th March, the team picked up the third cheetah and brought it back to N/a’an ku sê. The cheetahs were collected on the condition that the next cheetah the farmer catches be collared and released back onto his land. The farmer also agreed that he will improve his fencing to keep out the cheetahs in the future.
On 26th March, the team received a call from a farmer to report that a leopard had been captured in a cage. The farmer claimed that the leopard caught a calf in the kraal and was captured the next night when it returned to the kill. The kraal was not predator-proof and the farmer was against the idea of having a leopard on his property. Therefore our team identified another release site and translocated the leopard to another farm whose owner agreed to have it released there. N/a’an ku sê will work with the farmer in the future to improve his kraal and to avoid any leopard conflict in the future.
The team are currently tracking six carnivores fitted with GPS collars (four male leopards and two female leopards), and continue to share the data with the concerned farmers in an effort to build relationships and mitigate human-carnivore conflict.