We had the pleasure of documenting the ground-breaking cheetah research project for Leibniz-IZW (an internationally renowned German research institute) across Namibia.

The publication of a pivotal paper on the spatial ecology of cheetahs the implications for finding solutions to a human-wildlife conflict that has existed since the domestication of wildlife has been receiving international recognition thus far.

Rural central Namibia is one of the most important strongholds of the declining global cheetah population. Here, the rarest large African cat lives on privately owned farmland. A traditional conflict poses a threat to them, as they occasionally prey on cattle calves and are therefore rarely welcomed on the farms. New insights into the cheetah’s spatial behaviour provide a viable solution to this human-wildlife conflict: In the core areas of male cheetah territories all local males and females frequently meet to exchange information. This results in hotspots of cheetah activity in these “communication hubs” and in substantially less activity in the vast areas between the core areas of the territories. Implementing this knowledge and moving their breeding herds with young calves out of these hotspots, farmers were able to reduce livestock losses by more than 80 percent.

These findings are fascinating and it was such a privilege to learn more first-hand about such an impactful project from the people doing the work on the ground!

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