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!!
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