Zambia’s Kafue National Park – researchers held their breath just 30 yards from a pair of cheetahs as tension mounted in the fading light of the African bush.
A Harrowing Bush Rescue
A Harrowing Bush Rescue (Image Credits: Flickr)
In 2019, Anna Kusler, a PhD student from Montana State University, and her team approached a GPS-collared cheetah and its uncollared brother during routine monitoring. They discovered the uncollared male ensnared in an illegal wire trap, dragging several meters of it behind a severely injured leg. Help from a field veterinarian lay 18 hours away by road. The group waited nearby as the cats slept, aware that dusk signaled prime hunting time for these speedy predators.
The veterinarian arrived the following afternoon, successfully darted the injured cheetah, and removed the snare. Kusler later reflected on the stakes: “If he had lost that front foot, he would have died.” Such interventions highlight the raw dangers embedded in cheetah conservation work.
Monitoring Methods in the Vast Kafue
The Zambian Carnivore Programme, which supports Zambia’s Department of Parks and Wildlife, has tracked cheetahs in Kafue since 2011. This massive ecosystem, Africa’s second-largest contiguous conservation area and roughly twice the size of Yellowstone National Park, demands innovative techniques. Teams fitted GPS collars on select individuals, monitoring 89 cheetahs through mark-recapture methods from 2015 to 2023. They focused on 12 adult females across 27 reproductive years, counting cubs at dens and modeling survival rates to the first year.
Field staff patrolled in Land Rovers, capturing photographs of spot patterns to identify individuals. Citizen science from safari guides supplemented data on uncollared cats. These efforts extended to other carnivores like lions, leopards, and African wild dogs.
Deadly Threats Facing Cheetahs
Human activities claimed about half of adult and subadult cheetah deaths in the study period. Snares set for bushmeat such as warthogs and impalas often caught cheetahs instead, with their meat sold as impala and body parts traded for profit. Roadkill accounted for the other major portion.
Prey populations plummeted by three- to 30-fold, leaving cheetahs in poor body condition and struggling to reproduce. Competition from lions and spotted hyenas compounded issues, while males showed 10% higher survival rates than females. Researchers calculated an 88% chance that northern and central Kafue populations were declining or functioning as demographic sinks.
- Snares and poaching disrupt family groups.
- Roadkill rises with expanding infrastructure.
- Prey scarcity hampers cub recruitment.
- Predator competition limits territory access.
- Low first-year cub survival signals population crash.
Glimpses of Resilience and Recovery Plans
Despite challenges, field observations revealed intriguing behaviors. Two brother cheetahs attempted mating with a female amid churring calls, while a young cheetah learned a harsh lesson when a sable antelope mother rammed it away from her calf. Kusler noted, “The cheetah learned an important lesson that day not to touch baby sable. You get to see some pretty incredible things.”
Partners including African Parks, The Nature Conservancy, and Panthera trained rangers, reducing snares through patrols and a dedicated helicopter. Efforts now target prey recovery via community jobs and anti-bushmeat initiatives. The programme plans road speed bumps to curb fatalities. Kusler emphasized the species’ plight: “Cheetahs are quite iconic but they’re not doing super well. They don’t have a super-hot trajectory.”
Key Takeaways
- Cheetah numbers hover around 7,000 across Africa, fragmented in small groups.
- Kafue monitoring reveals urgent declines in key areas.
- Coordinated anti-poaching and habitat efforts offer reversal potential.
Conservation in Kafue blends high-risk fieldwork with data-driven hope, underscoring that cheetah survival hinges on swift, collaborative action. What steps do you believe could best protect these iconic cats? Share your thoughts in the comments.
