At Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB), we often get calls from newlyarrived South Africans, who have come to Ghanzi to buy or manage farms and are shocked by the presence of cheetahs in the grazing lands. Coming from farming areas in SA that have no carnivores larger than a jackal to worry about, their immediate reaction is that the cheetahs need to be shot or relocated off the farm. Conversely, the reaction from Batswana farmers, particularly in the last decade, is far calmer and more measured. At CCB, we are always providing guidance and tangible support on how best to protect livestock from predation and mitigate conflict with carnivores.
International Cheetah Day, celebrated annually on December 4th, is a day to consider and appreciate Africa’s most endangered big cat, majestic and unique, this species only has 7,100 individuals left on the planet. Botswana has more cheetahs than any other country on earth, and together with Namibia, holds half of the global population. Botswana’s central location within Southern Africa also means that our population is critical to linking those found in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
And with genetic isolation of populations elsewhere in the world, this connectivity is critical to the species’ survival.
There are two reasons that farmers in Botswana should be celebrating International Cheetah Day. The first, is that it’s thanks to farmers that Botswana’s population has endured so well.
Where the worldwide population of cheetahs crashed by half between 1998 and 2015, Botswana’s population has remained stable, with approximately 1,700 individuals. What was the role of farmers? Well, cheetahs are outcompeted by larger carnivores in protected areas, and this is the main reason why 78% of Botswana’s cheetahs are found outside of national parks and reserves; in the wildlife management areas, communal grazing lands and commercial farming areas. This would not be possible if every farmer was killing cheetahs on sight. And thankfully, there is no need to. Research on diet preferences conducted by CCB has found that livestock make up only 6% of a cheetah’s diet on average, so it’s clear that not every cheetah is a threat to livestock – quite the contrary. Furthermore, our experiences with conflict have shown us that removing cheetahs that have not been causing any problems can exacerbate a farmer’s problems due to the “sinkhole effect”. When one territorial male is removed from an area (whether by killing or relocating the animal), it leaves a “void” or empty territory that can draw in transient males from surrounding areas. This can result in several transient, and therefore weaker animals that are more likely to kill livestock, to descend onto the farm and subsequently fight over the newly vacated territory, increasing the risk of livestock attacks. And yet farmer-cheetah conflicts are becoming less frequent in the passing years. For the team at CCB, this is definitely reason to celebrate. Our organisation was founded in 2004 with the aim of conserving Botswana’s cheetah population by enabling coexistence with humans, particularly farmers. At that time, the top threat to cheetahs was persecution from farmers, and this remains the same today. Consequently, CCB has developed several interventions to minimise conflict, including increasing the capacity of farmers through workshops in adaptive farming practices, establishing farmers networks for communal farmers to share experiences and enable peer-to-peer learning, setting up a rapid response unit to attend to conflict situations and putting in place our livestock guarding dog (LGD) program to prevent livestock attacks.
As one of CCB’s flagship interventions, the LGD programme trains local Tswana puppies to guard livestock and places them with farmers who are experiencing conflict with carnivores. Since 2013, we have placed over 200 LGD puppies with smallstock farmers in the Kalahari, who have seen a resultant reduction in carnivore attacks of at least 85%.
It only takes a year after the placement of these super pups before farmers start to see carnivores in a new light — not having to view them as a threat, because their LGDs are protecting their herds so effectively. In the last two years, the reach of the programme has extended by utilising model farmers within the community to train additional LGD puppies for placement, thus being able to keep up with the growing demand. For farmers who want to train their own LGDs, we also provide technical guidance and resources to do so.
With these tools at hand and critically, the willingness of farmers across the landscape, there has been a gradual decline in farmer-cheetah conflicts in the last decade, contributing to the stability of the nation’s cheetah population, despite ongoing threats from climate change and poaching. So as we commemorate International Cheetah Day this year, it is good to take stock and be grateful for the progress made, and motivate ourselves for the work that still lies ahead, and we are determined, that hand-in hand with our partners in the communities, great strides shall continue to be made.
Happy International Cheetah Day!
If you are experiencing conflict with cheetahs, we can help. Please contact us on info@
cheetahconservationbotswana.org or 350 0613
or find us on Facebook.
