Below are two emails that past students received from experts involved in conservation.
The first email is from an expert who works in the African country of Botswana in an effort to save the endangered cheetahs!
Hi (name removed),
Thanks for taking an interest in Cheetah Conservation Botswana.
Sorry it has taken me a little while to get back to you - I was busy working out in the bush where we don’t have internet access. I hope my reply is not too late for the project you are doing.
Let me do my best to answer your questions…
1) Are conservation methods working?
Well, yes and no. Conservation, particularly when it involves working with people when you are dealing with issues relating to human-wildlife conflict (like livestock farmers killing cheetahs when they eat goats) can be tricky and we are constantly learning and evolving our techniques. Some things work, some things don’t. And the longer we keep trying, so long as we learn from past mistakes, the better we get. For example, Zimbabwe recently reported a reduction in their cheetah population from the last survey of 1500 cheetahs, to now only having 150 cheetahs left in their entire country. There was very little conservation of cheetahs going on there and as such, the cheetahs outside of protected areas were all killed. Meanwhile, next door here in Botswana, we have been actively partaking in conservation projects hand in hand with the government since 2003 and our country has a stable population of between 1500-2000 cheetahs - the same population estimate since the first estimate was done in 1970. This is pretty remarkable as human populations and livestock numbers have been steadily increasing - and because conflict with livestock farmers is the biggest threat to cheetahs, its amazing that these increases haven’t resulted in a drop in the cheetah populations. I like to think its because of the work we do here at Cheetah Conservation Botswana…. But its hard to tell.
2) Have they exceeded expectations or have had a slow start?
Cheetah-farmer conflict is the biggest threat to cheetahs. Cheetahs wander around farmlands a lot and when farmers see them near their livestock, they shoot them for fear that they will eat their livestock. Not many cheetahs actually kill livestock, so one of our jobs is to make sure farmers understand that. We also help them to use methods that will protect their livestock even from those cheetahs that do want to eat their livestock - things like livestock guarding dogs - which work really well. We use local breed mongrel livestock guarding dogs in our programs and they work very well as they are adapted to the local environment (as opposed to purebred, imported breeds of dog). It did take a while before the farming communities began to really trust us, but once they saw that we wanted to help them to protect their livestock from predators, then they began to work well with us. Things have been easier since then.
3) Have conservation groups helped more cubs reach adulthood?
The figure you have that only 5% of cubs reach adulthood is accurate but only in the reserves of Eastern Africa where that research was done. Similar research in areas where there are no lions or spotted hyenas have found that cub survival is somewhat higher (˜30%). A new study from east Africa found that cub survival was also negatively influenced by tourism activity. So areas where there were a lot of tourists around the cheetahs had a lower survival rate for cubs… which is interesting. 90% of the cheetahs in Botswana are found outside of protected areas (e.g. on farmlands rather than in reserves and national parks), and there aren’t a lot of lions around outside of protected areas… so we suspect that the sub survival is much higher in Botswana than those levels reported elsewhere. We often see family groups with 4-5 cubs at almost independence age, which is quite remarkable. We haven’t done any official studies on this in our area though.
4) Is it possible to reintroduce cheetahs in habitats where it has gone extinct?
Absolutely, as long as the reason it has gone extinct is no longer an issue and so long as the cheetahs have everything they are going to need to survive - enough food, water, shelter and space - cheetahs need A LOT of space. The main cause of extinction is humans and persecution from humans, so you would probably need a protected area that is free of larger competition carnivores like lions. Also you need to consider that cheetahs don’t travel well so you would need to be careful in transporting them and doing a soft release (gentle release using small enclosures and possible supplement feeding first and a gradual introduction into the new place). Its a complicated process… but they have recently successfully reintroduced cheetahs back into Malawi - through the Endangered Wildlife Trust. You should be able to find more information about that in news articles online. There has been talks to reintroduce cheetahs back into India but that has been suspended as it has several problems associated with it, most notably the fact that there are high human populations, lots of wildlife poaching and not many wild places left to reintroduce them to.
There is a new book out that should be able to answer almost ALL your questions about cheetahs - its called Cheetahs: Biology and Conservation and is edited by Laurie Marker, Lorraine Boast and Anne Schmidt-Kuntzel (Biodiversity of the World Series). It has everything you need to know about cheetahs in it and is a collaborative effort of all of the world’s leading cheetah conservationists. Check out your local library to see if you can get access to it.
I hope this information helps you! It’s great to see a student so passionate about the world’s most awesome animal!
Best of luck,Choose this theme to customize and add content to this page.
Thanks for taking an interest in Cheetah Conservation Botswana.
Sorry it has taken me a little while to get back to you - I was busy working out in the bush where we don’t have internet access. I hope my reply is not too late for the project you are doing.
Let me do my best to answer your questions…
1) Are conservation methods working?
Well, yes and no. Conservation, particularly when it involves working with people when you are dealing with issues relating to human-wildlife conflict (like livestock farmers killing cheetahs when they eat goats) can be tricky and we are constantly learning and evolving our techniques. Some things work, some things don’t. And the longer we keep trying, so long as we learn from past mistakes, the better we get. For example, Zimbabwe recently reported a reduction in their cheetah population from the last survey of 1500 cheetahs, to now only having 150 cheetahs left in their entire country. There was very little conservation of cheetahs going on there and as such, the cheetahs outside of protected areas were all killed. Meanwhile, next door here in Botswana, we have been actively partaking in conservation projects hand in hand with the government since 2003 and our country has a stable population of between 1500-2000 cheetahs - the same population estimate since the first estimate was done in 1970. This is pretty remarkable as human populations and livestock numbers have been steadily increasing - and because conflict with livestock farmers is the biggest threat to cheetahs, its amazing that these increases haven’t resulted in a drop in the cheetah populations. I like to think its because of the work we do here at Cheetah Conservation Botswana…. But its hard to tell.
2) Have they exceeded expectations or have had a slow start?
Cheetah-farmer conflict is the biggest threat to cheetahs. Cheetahs wander around farmlands a lot and when farmers see them near their livestock, they shoot them for fear that they will eat their livestock. Not many cheetahs actually kill livestock, so one of our jobs is to make sure farmers understand that. We also help them to use methods that will protect their livestock even from those cheetahs that do want to eat their livestock - things like livestock guarding dogs - which work really well. We use local breed mongrel livestock guarding dogs in our programs and they work very well as they are adapted to the local environment (as opposed to purebred, imported breeds of dog). It did take a while before the farming communities began to really trust us, but once they saw that we wanted to help them to protect their livestock from predators, then they began to work well with us. Things have been easier since then.
3) Have conservation groups helped more cubs reach adulthood?
The figure you have that only 5% of cubs reach adulthood is accurate but only in the reserves of Eastern Africa where that research was done. Similar research in areas where there are no lions or spotted hyenas have found that cub survival is somewhat higher (˜30%). A new study from east Africa found that cub survival was also negatively influenced by tourism activity. So areas where there were a lot of tourists around the cheetahs had a lower survival rate for cubs… which is interesting. 90% of the cheetahs in Botswana are found outside of protected areas (e.g. on farmlands rather than in reserves and national parks), and there aren’t a lot of lions around outside of protected areas… so we suspect that the sub survival is much higher in Botswana than those levels reported elsewhere. We often see family groups with 4-5 cubs at almost independence age, which is quite remarkable. We haven’t done any official studies on this in our area though.
4) Is it possible to reintroduce cheetahs in habitats where it has gone extinct?
Absolutely, as long as the reason it has gone extinct is no longer an issue and so long as the cheetahs have everything they are going to need to survive - enough food, water, shelter and space - cheetahs need A LOT of space. The main cause of extinction is humans and persecution from humans, so you would probably need a protected area that is free of larger competition carnivores like lions. Also you need to consider that cheetahs don’t travel well so you would need to be careful in transporting them and doing a soft release (gentle release using small enclosures and possible supplement feeding first and a gradual introduction into the new place). Its a complicated process… but they have recently successfully reintroduced cheetahs back into Malawi - through the Endangered Wildlife Trust. You should be able to find more information about that in news articles online. There has been talks to reintroduce cheetahs back into India but that has been suspended as it has several problems associated with it, most notably the fact that there are high human populations, lots of wildlife poaching and not many wild places left to reintroduce them to.
There is a new book out that should be able to answer almost ALL your questions about cheetahs - its called Cheetahs: Biology and Conservation and is edited by Laurie Marker, Lorraine Boast and Anne Schmidt-Kuntzel (Biodiversity of the World Series). It has everything you need to know about cheetahs in it and is a collaborative effort of all of the world’s leading cheetah conservationists. Check out your local library to see if you can get access to it.
I hope this information helps you! It’s great to see a student so passionate about the world’s most awesome animal!
Best of luck,Choose this theme to customize and add content to this page.
The second email is from an associate of Dr. Mikota who works with governments in many countries in Asia to help stop the poaching of the Asian Elephant.
Dear (name removed),
Dr. Mikota is in the field in Asia. She just attended in Thailand the annual meeting of the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group (we are both members). She is now in Vietnam working with the government to save and care for injured wild elephants and to evaluate the potential for breeding ( http://elephantcare.org/projects/vietnam/)
Regarding your questions, you can answer the first one yourself by doing some Google research. You might try entering "evolution of the elephant trunk". We get many requests for information and though most are welcome, there are also those best answered with a little computer research. Obviously, your second question is best answered directly by us. Elephant Care International is one of the great resources for reliable information on medical questions about elephants. Our drug formulary (Formulary | elephantcare) is a unique resource, not available elsewhere, that provides information on drug usages for elephants, including doses and potential complications.
Our elephant database includes bibliographic info on scientific publications concerning elephants. As of 1 Feb 2018, the ECI Database includes 5592 citations and 1785 pdfs. Database | elephantcare
While these and other resources we offer are invaluable for elephant care, perhaps our greatest personal reward has been working with the Government of Nepal to enhance the health of patrol elephants used to control poaching in the vast national parks of Nepal. Several patrol elephants had died of tuberculosis (TB) before we worked with Nepal to develop a comprehensive plan to control TB in elephants, the first such plan ever instituted anywhere. The result has been twofold. First, a sharp drop in TB deaths of elephants and secondly, a huge success by Nepal in reducing poaching of elephants, rhino, and tigers. In several recent years, most unlike the carnage in Africa, Nepal has gone entire years with no poaching of these endangered animals.
Regarding your question about the potential extinction of the Asian elephant, the answer, in our opinion is humans. Do they care, or not. We worked in the field in Indonesia for almost three years. We are most pessimistic about the likelihood of elephants surviving there. In India, where we have sponsored a large project, and where the vast majority of Asian elephants live, the people respect the elephants, and, despite human population and resource pressures, we are optimistic that elephants will remain for at least many centuries. Sri Lanka is similar to India in many ways and we are relatively optimistic there. Vietnam is very doubtful. Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are questionable. China has a small precarious population. Nepal and Malaysia are hopefuls.
I hope this will be of some help to you. Most importantly, remember, we are not alone on this planet. If WE do not make efforts to control the very real dangers of global warming, all bets are off. All the love in the world will not save the wildlife or Nature as we now know it.
hank
Dr. Mikota is in the field in Asia. She just attended in Thailand the annual meeting of the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group (we are both members). She is now in Vietnam working with the government to save and care for injured wild elephants and to evaluate the potential for breeding ( http://elephantcare.org/projects/vietnam/)
Regarding your questions, you can answer the first one yourself by doing some Google research. You might try entering "evolution of the elephant trunk". We get many requests for information and though most are welcome, there are also those best answered with a little computer research. Obviously, your second question is best answered directly by us. Elephant Care International is one of the great resources for reliable information on medical questions about elephants. Our drug formulary (Formulary | elephantcare) is a unique resource, not available elsewhere, that provides information on drug usages for elephants, including doses and potential complications.
Our elephant database includes bibliographic info on scientific publications concerning elephants. As of 1 Feb 2018, the ECI Database includes 5592 citations and 1785 pdfs. Database | elephantcare
While these and other resources we offer are invaluable for elephant care, perhaps our greatest personal reward has been working with the Government of Nepal to enhance the health of patrol elephants used to control poaching in the vast national parks of Nepal. Several patrol elephants had died of tuberculosis (TB) before we worked with Nepal to develop a comprehensive plan to control TB in elephants, the first such plan ever instituted anywhere. The result has been twofold. First, a sharp drop in TB deaths of elephants and secondly, a huge success by Nepal in reducing poaching of elephants, rhino, and tigers. In several recent years, most unlike the carnage in Africa, Nepal has gone entire years with no poaching of these endangered animals.
Regarding your question about the potential extinction of the Asian elephant, the answer, in our opinion is humans. Do they care, or not. We worked in the field in Indonesia for almost three years. We are most pessimistic about the likelihood of elephants surviving there. In India, where we have sponsored a large project, and where the vast majority of Asian elephants live, the people respect the elephants, and, despite human population and resource pressures, we are optimistic that elephants will remain for at least many centuries. Sri Lanka is similar to India in many ways and we are relatively optimistic there. Vietnam is very doubtful. Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are questionable. China has a small precarious population. Nepal and Malaysia are hopefuls.
I hope this will be of some help to you. Most importantly, remember, we are not alone on this planet. If WE do not make efforts to control the very real dangers of global warming, all bets are off. All the love in the world will not save the wildlife or Nature as we now know it.
hank