Cheetah conservation continues on a stable path at Mountain Zebra National Park (MZNP) as the once-critically endangered animal in SA is safeguarded through innovative means.
A tranquil, rugged terrain near Nxuba (formerly Cradock), the park is home to a catalogue of wildlife, enjoyed by 23,000 visitors during the 2022/2023 financial year.
Aside from the now-abundant Cape Mountain zebra, from which the token mountainous setting derived its name following proclamation in 1937, is the presence of the fastest land mammal — cheetahs.
Absent from the plains of the Karoo for more than a century, SANParks introduced the predator at the 28,000ha park 17 years ago.
Starting with a sparse population of four, the numbers exploded to a stable size of 35 within two years.
Today, with two males and two females, four juvenile cheetah cubs and another litter anticipated, a private donation of a wildlife tracking collar caused much fanfare on Thursday.
SANParks veterinarian wildlife services senior vet David Zimmermann undertook the delicate process of tranquillising and recollaring a mother cheetah named CJ.
This collar, costing about R40,000, supports the existing conservation — as the previous collar had reached its two-year life span — while keeping alive the park’s draw-card visitor activity in cheetah tracking.
MZNP is the only park from 21 national parks in SA, including Camdeboo, Karoo and Addo Elephant in the Eastern Cape’s frontier region, offering it in its tourism package.
However, the collar, more crucially, bolsters the ecological management of the animal.
“Collaring is an important process to give us a handle on population numbers,” Zimmermann said.
“The tourism aspect is an added benefit.”
Wildlife collars are used to collect the location data of a study animal at set intervals.
The data is received through satellite communication using Very High Frequency (VHF) radio telemetry for intensive remote monitoring.
“The collar is integral to allowing us to mimic processes such as offtakes or the movement of the animals across the landscape,” Zimmermann said.
“The cheetah population in the country is at [acceptable] levels.
“However, the problem for many animal populations is we haven’t got the space.
“Protected areas are not big enough for animals such as the cheetah.
“Historically, they moved across abundant space with the big migration of herbivores.”
MZNP’s adoption of a scientific metapopulation approach formed the basis for maintaining isolated populations’ genetic and demographic integrity.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) developed the Cheetah Metapopulation Project in 2011 to ensure its conservation value.
“As we don’t have enough space to manage the population, we [employ a scientific method called] metapopulation.
“The smaller parks are islands of animals no longer connected — meaning they can’t move to Camdeboo or Addo because of the man-made barriers resulting from human habitation.
“So, we must manage them by physically moving them around to another park with a cheetah population to mimic the process of dispersion and migration.”
Metapopulation is additionally a control measure used to prevent inbreeding and, thus, keep the gene pool from weakening.
SANParks management relocated a group of 13 cheetahs born in the park in line with this objective in 2010 and 2011.
It has contributed over 30 to the greater cheetah metapopulation, including important range expansion projects in Malawi and Zambia.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, cheetahs are in the vulnerable category and risk going extinct in the wild.
They face many threats, such as losing their prey and habitat to human activity, human-animal conflict and illegal animal trade.
MZNP park manager and former Addo conservation manager Evans Mkansi highlighted another significance of the monitoring programme to safeguard and maintain the big cat population.
“From a conservation point of view, lions and cheetahs become the predators whose whereabouts you worry about in a national park surrounded by livestock farmers.
“Lions are, therefore, also tracked, albeit not for viewing by visitors but for our monitoring programme.
“A senior section ranger checks for the collared animals daily using telemetry.”
Donor Anthony Armstrong said his decision to sponsor a wildlife collar sprang from a longstanding relationship with the conservation authority.
Armstrong said the park had done well to conserve biodiversity, especially the cheetah population, “and we wanted to do our bit to help preserve them for future generations”.
“Our family has always been passionate about wildlife and we’ve been avid SANParks fans since the early 1990s.
“Mountain Zebra National Park, specifically, captured our hearts when we came on a family trip in 2018 and we’ve been visiting regularly ever since.
“We’ve spent lots of time in the park with former [senior field] guide Richard Okkers and, thanks to him, we heard about the option to sponsor a much-needed collar.
“We first met CJ’s mom, Angela, in 2018, and have eagerly followed the family’s story over the years.
“We think CJ has made Angela and her father Mabula proud by successfully raising her first litter of four.
“We’re honoured and privileged to be a small part of this amazing story.”
Hospitality services manager Vuyani Dial said the wildlife haven would continue striving to build a tailored experience for visitors while connecting with neighbouring communities.
“Excellent customer service is a sure way of bringing the visitors back,” Dial said.
“We must do more for the community through hosting road shows.
“The annual SANParks Week allows us to collaborate with external stakeholders to bring more citizens into national parks for free over that week.”
HeraldLIVE
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