Leopard Rewilding can be successful The De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust in cooperation with Shayamanzi Leopard Project recently envisaged on a project to prove the viability and success of rewilding a young wild born leopard cub back into the wild. The 6 month old leopard was received by the D...
| Cooperation in Research | | Print | |
 Bray Farmers set Benchmark for Cooperation in ResearchA farmer in the Bray area, Erich Graupner, has recently taken the bold step to approach the De Wildt Wild Cheetah Project in order to initiate a collar and release project for predators in the Bray area. Mr Graupner recently captured a female leopard that was predating on his antelope and decided to have her collared and released in order to collect the first ever scientific data relating to these predators in this specific area of the Kalahari. The Bray area is known for intolerance from many landowners towards predators and in most cases such animals are shot. Many predators such as cheetahs are also captured and sold on the black market from this specific area. It is hoped that the information gathered from this collar and release will provide information that will prove to landowners in the Bray area that predators such as leopards (and maybe cheetahs in the future) do actually use large areas and that they do not have a detrimental effect on the antelope species on game ranches. Mr Graupner fondly named the leopard “Ramala”. Luke Strugnell of the De Wildt Wild Cheetah Project collared the female and released her on Mr Graupner’s farm. Mr Graupner keeps close tabs on Ramala and keeps the farmers in the area well informed. The collar for Ramala was generously sponsored by HOTGROUP, a new company which is manufacturing GPS based behaviour monitoring collars in South Africa. |
