The Goat Kraal

My fecal collections wrapped up in the Eland and Bellebenno camps a few weeks ago. This means that I am not on cheetah husbandry every day anymore (bummer!) and that I am spending a lot of time working around other areas of CCF like the genetics lab, giving talks to CCF guests attending center feeding and, of course, the goal kraal. The goat kraal at CCF serves as a model farm as to how Namibians can house and manage their livestock herds in a predator safe (that includes cheetahs) and friendly manner. It also serves as a source of revenue for CCF because the dairy goats provide milk for making cheese and ice cream, which are sold at the café, and the milk is also used for making soap, which is sold in the gift shop and at a farmer’s market in Otjiwarongo. The kraal is also home to Boer goats (for meat) and several livestock guarding dogs. The kraal can be a very dirty place and after cleaning it up I find I am left with a pseudo-tan, but also a sense of accomplishment. Plus, I love the goats! (Particularly the kids). I can’t get enough baby goat time.

The goats, however, don’t always make the job the easiest of tasks…

but I still love them!

Aside from cleaning the kraal, then interns take turns assisting in the goat milking at 6am and 4:30pm. I don’t actually do any of the milking, but we weigh out the milking rations for each of the goats and assist in moving goats around in the stalls. I’ve learned I’m not very good at pushing goats around, but I try my best!

The dairy goats have quite the personality as well.

Lastly, I can’t forget about the livestock guarding dogs. Though dogs are most certainly not one of my favorite animals, I love anything that is little and we have puppies!! They were born about 2 weeks ago and are just now opening their eyes. They grow incredible fast and are about the most adorable little chunkers you have ever seen! They are most certainly the highlight of any time I am assigned to feed the dogs. 

I get to feed them this afternoon in fact. J

Rare Wildlife Sightings

One of the most rewarding parts of spending 2 months in “the African bush” is that it provides opportunities to see so much wildlife, some of which is quite rare and considered lucky to see, even by the permanent residents. I mentioned in previous posts my aardvark and leopard sightings…. well the magic continues. A few nights ago I participated in a field count which involves driving out into the “little Serengeti” as it is referred, otherwise known as “the Big Field”. First, someone spotted an aardvark, yes, making that two aardvarks I’ve seen now! I tried to snap a photo as it ran off, but all I got was some aardvark booty. Better than no proof I suppose.

Not too long after that, someone spotted a pangolin! Holy smokes!! Matti, the amazing and wonderful staff member helping with our game count, motioned for us all to climb out of the safari vehicle to get a closer look at it. Luckily, this creature does not run off and we got to get up close and personal with him. Incredible. What’s a pangolin you say? See for yourself!

The magic followed me to Bellebenno yesterday. On our way back from a late trip to feed the cheetahs, Ryan and I saw something cross the road ahead. He said “African wild dog?” to which I said “Brown hyena?”… Well we slowed down the truck to see if the critter was still within sight, and hiding there behind a bush was an aardwolf! So beautiful. I didn’t realize they were so brilliantly colorful. We hopped out of the truck and he headed off to see if we could track him (an insect eater so no worries about safety) for a little bit. Apparently, my camera was more fascinated with the bushes, but I’ve got a blurry shot of aardwolf proof.

Lastly, this morning was a magical morning. Not because I had 6am goat milking duties (which itself requires another blog post at a future time), but as I was walking from the dorms, up towards the cheetah enclosures, I’m looking up to my left at the moon still in the sky, only to look back forward and see a WILD CHEETAH walk briskly past me, about 20 meters away. No doubt this is the male called HiFi who’s territory includes the main center of CCF and thus all the lovely ladies in the Eland enclosures. He is a frequent visitor, but it was my first sighting and I could not be more ecstatic! Did I have my camera ready? Absolutely not. Am I sad that I failed to capture him on film? Of course, but seeing a wild cheetah has been on my wish list for a long time and I finally saw one! That cannot be taken away from me. Next time I have 6am milking duties I will be sure to bring a camera in tow!

Captures

Juliette (cheetah curator) got some amazing news last weekend: a private game reserve in Namibia, Erindi, is willing to take two more cheetahs, which means CCF gets to release two of our captive cheetahs to the “wild”. Who are the lucky ladies? Luna and Athena.

 Luna

Athena

In order to get the two chosen females ready, we had to capture them into a box for transport up in Bellebenno and bring them down to CCF’s main center to release into one of the Eland enclosures in order for them to get habituated to humans driving around them and taking photographs of them (as this will happen several times a day when they are in Erindi). We did not get to assist in the capture itself, just watch from the truck, and of course my camera battery died, so I have to get good pictures from someone else, but these are some I managed to snap of Ryan closing the door to the box with Luna inside and one of Athena unhappily inside the box, loaded on the truck for transport.

 I did get to help open up the crate for Luna to enter the Eland holding pen, but again, that picture is on someone else’s camera, so hopefully I can get my hands on a copy… The next day, Paul (farm manager and hunter), shot a warthog to feed to the two ladies so we could see if they were capable of opening a carcass. 

Athena was successful and then she became a booty nosher:

In other news, there is a wild cheetah, most likely a male, that has been marking his territory around the 57ha female cheetah enclosure in Bellebenno and we’d like to get a look at him! He has pooped the last three days, and yesterday we put up a camera trap to try a capture him on film. When we went to Bellebenno today though, there were no tracks, no fresh scat, and just some sexy photos of my booty, LOL! Perhaps we will get luckier tonight...

Less Exciting Moments

This week has been crazy, yet unexciting. We have had two large groups of people here: National Geographic Student Expeditions and Earth Expeditions. Because they like to take big groups out to Bellebenno, it means interns get left behind, which means me. Basically I gave a short talk about my research to the two groups (across two days) of Nat Geo kids (high school students) and then they took off to Bellebenno whilst I stayed behind to pick up poop in Elands. Then there was a 12hr waterhole count, 6am to 6 pm, sunrise to sunset, during which obviously I also did not get to do anything except sit and watch a water trough. The most exciting thing we saw all day was a giraffe at 8am.

I was also a nervous nelly when a female kudu made it very clear she could see us and would mess us up if we came close to her family. She was a beast. I had no idea they could make that kind of noise and if I hadn’t already taken a poop in the bush myself (yes… thanks for the chili the night before the 12hr count), I would have gone in my pants. We had a 6.5hr stretch during which all we saw were warthogs, and a 1.75hr stretch during which we saw absolutely nothing. Luckily, my waterhole buddy, Rachel, a working guest, was good company, otherwise we would have gone insane. Luckily, I got to go to Bellenbenno with the Earth Expeditions groups after three days away, which recharged my batteries. I rocked a cheetah stick with confidence and did not get attacked while opening the gates in front of all those other people. Winning. It allowed me to enjoy more of the little things again like African sunsets... 

and the view of the Waterburg Plateau. I really want to get on top of there...

Exciting Moments

The last few days have had some exciting moments indeed. On Wednesday, we went out to Bellebenno as usual, but on the drive home, all of a sudden a cat leaps across the road! Not just any cat: a leopard! We hit the brakes and back up to see if we could catch a better look, and the young adult leopard was sitting behind some trees/brush looking at us back. What a beautiful animal and a rarity to see, so I am one lucky gal!

After we returned to CCF’s main center, we found out that they were going to run the cheetah cubs, Rainbow and Aurora. A “run” consists of rigging up a lure (a cloth tied to a string) that is hooked up to a battery, such that the rag can be moved around the enclosure with a remote. The movement of the rag stimulates a cheetahs natural instinct to hunt, much like domestic cats like to attack toys with feathers or laser pointers. This would be only the second time these cubs were run. These youngsters are less than a year old and too cute, so watching them chase the rag was super enjoyable. Ahh cute cubiness….

Yesterday, we had Laurie and her aunt, Anna, join us on our trip to Bellebenno. For those who don’t know, I met Laurie a couple years ago at the CCF benefit in DC. The three of us stood in the bed of the truck as we drove through the 57ha cheetah enclosure, getting to watch them first walk with the car, then run after the car. Watching cheetahs run is so fantastic. It is so dry that the truck kicks up a lot of dust, but I managed a few good shots with my camera I think (while trying also to hold on tight!).

Today had its own excitement. The Bellebenno girls were being fed donkey heads today, and thus I had to “mark” each of the donkey heads with the appropriate glitter, beans, corn, rice, etc. This was something new and I surprisingly enjoyed it… though I enjoy every moment here besides the occasional cold shower. The photo is not for the faint of heart…

Every day is a new adventure!

Feeding and Pooping

Today was more of the same, but I thought I’d share a couple photos from feeding the cheetahs in the Bellebenno camp today. We toss the meat over the fence after luring them into the feeding pens. They grab it and usually run away and hide to eat it. Even though your hands get nice and bloody from the raw meat, it is quite fun to do. While they are all locked up feeding is when we drive around the edge of the camp searching for poop. Because the cheetahs had a “starve day” yesterday, meaning they were not fed, there was a lot less poop to pick up today, but do not fret, there will be plenty more to come!

I took an inventory of the scat I’ve been collecting and I realize that I am sampling from too many cheetahs! I never thought they would be so cooperative here at CCF and so willing to put in the extra work for my study. Anne (Director of Research) had given me a completely different impression when we were planning my trip here: the opposite in fact. When I completed the CITES paperwork for importing blood samples I said I would only have 30 samples, which means 30 cheetahs, and at the time both myself and Adrienne (my Smithsonian advisor) thought I was being ambitious. It’s a good problem to have I guess… So much poop!!

Bellebenno

My daily routine now consists of two major scat walks (through the two Eland enclosures) and a scat drive (around the 57ha Bellebenno camp). These are the three camps in which the cheetahs are being fed marked food, such that we are able to identify their poop just by looking at it (or pulling it apart as is most often the case). The Bellebenno farm is a piece of property that used to be a game farm, but was acquired by CCF to be used for “soft releases”. There are plenty of oryx, eland, giraffe, zebra, kudu, warthogs, etc inside of the Bellebenno farm. Also inside, are three cheetah “enclosures”, one of which is the 57 hectare camp that is home to 8 mid-aged female cheetahs. These girls are practically wild, because they only see humans once a day when they are fed. I get to be one of those humans and I love it. Every time we drive through the Bellebenno farm property to head to the cheetah camp is like going on a game drive. Yesterday I saw an aardvark!! Amazing. No photo to prove it, but it was epic. After we feed the girls, we take a drive around the fenceline and these girls are so fabulous that we usually find scat (aka. poop) from at least 6 of the 8 on any given day. Considering the vast amount of space we don’t search, this is incredible. Today, we found samples from all 8 girls. A fabulous day.

Because of my project, I get to be on cheetah husbandry every day, and I work directly with either the head cheetah keeper, Juliette, or the assistant cheetah keeper, Ryan. They have both been so amazing considering the amount of extra work that was put on their daily plate because of my project. Major acknowledgements will be required. I have so many samples already from the three camps I have no idea if I will fit everything into the coolers I brought. Things have been so successful I really could not have wished for things to go better. I will be sad when these first few weeks are over and I am not longer on husbandry daily… although we need to start collecting from some males too (so I can’t head to the genetics lab just yet): right now Phoenix is the only one! I’ve got my eye on “the scientists”. J

Here’s my best cheetah photo from today: