Hello from Reading: Tracking cats on a conservation mission to Namib...
1 of 3
http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=73086
12/23/2007
Search Site Here... Click on picture to enlarge.
Last Update: 12/20/2007 11:14:00 AM
Hello from Reading: Tracking cats on a conservation mission to Namibia Namibia may not be most people’s first (or second) choice for a holiday, but then this wasn’t a holiday — it was another of my conservation expeditions. Along with 11 other volunteers from Europe and the United States, I joined scientist Harald Forster of Biosphere Expeditions (www.biosphere-expeditions.org) to study Namibian big cats. We were gathering data to help protect endangered leopard and cheetah on the 180-square-kilometer Okomitundu game farm about 100 miles northwest of Windhoek. This is savanna, covered with grass, acacias and thorn trees; lush during the short rainy season but arid and harsh during the rest of the year.
Courtesy of Biosphere Expeditions A cheetah bolts from a box trap after being fitted with a radio collar.
Article Tools Save to del.icio.us Digg This Share on Facebook Email Article Print Article
Hello from Reading, England By Peter Lynch Reading Eagle Correspondent • Peter Lynch is a travel writer who lives in Reading, England. His column appears every other Sunday. Contact him through Lifestyle@readingeagle.com.
Our core research involved tracking leopard and cheetah previously captured and fitted with radio collars, identifying and counting tracks, and recording prey species.
Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetah, and 90 percent of them live in farming areas. Conflict with humans is a problem as they sometimes kill livestock, but their ecology is poorly understood, which makes conservation difficult.
handyradar.celldorado.com Ads by Goooooogle
Matthias Hammer, the German founder of Biosphere Expeditions, told us, “This is no lazy holiday or soft safari but an important scientific expedition.”
23/12/2007 15:31