/Cheetah-Map

🐆 Solving the Cheetah–Farmer Conflict in Namibia — My Contribution to the BES Movement "MoveMap" Competition 2021

 Solving the Cheetah–Farmer Conflict in Namibia 

My Contribution to the BES Movement "MoveMap" Competition 2021

    Blog    Email    Twitter    Instagram    Behance    LinkedIn    BuyMeACoffee   


Graphic: Cédric Scherer

Icons: Stephanie Gendera

Data: IZW Cheetah Research Project, hosted on Movebank

Publication: Melzheimer, Heinrich, Wasiolka, Mueller, Thalwitzer, Palmegiani, Weigold, Portas, Roeder, Krofel, Hofer & Wachter (2020) Communication hubs of an asocial cat are the source of a human-carnivore conflict and key to its solution. PNAS 117:33325-33333. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002487117

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. New insights into the cheetah’s spatial behaviour provide a viable solution to this human-wildlife conflict: “communication hubs” form hotspots of cheetah activity, leading to substantially less activity in the vast areas between the cores of the territories.

The map illustrates the movement behaviour of three floaters that regularly visit these communication hubs. All of them frequently move into the “P Hub” during the period from 16 to 31 December 2020 (highlighted tracks).

About the "Cheetah Research Project"

The Cheetah Research Project (CRP) of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) has been established in the farmlands of central Namibia since 2001. The CRP team has been studying the cheetah population focusing on a variety of research topics such as behavioral ecology, spatial ecology, prey selection, population ecology, mating system, reproductive success, genetics, immunology, health status and human-wildlife conflict. The CRP aim is to provide information for evidence based decision making in conservation policy. The project findings have contributed to a better understanding of the cheetah mating system, the spatial ecology of free-ranging cheetahs and their immune system.

Alternative Version


Buy Me A Coffee