My Contribution to the BES Movement "MoveMap" Competition 2021
Graphic: Cédric Scherer
Icons: Stephanie Gendera
Data: IZW Cheetah Research Project, hosted on Movebank
Publication: Melzheimer, Heinrich, Wasiolka, Mueller, Thalwitzer, Palmegiani, Weigold, Portas, Roeder, Krofel, Hofer & Wachter (2020) Communication hubs of an asocial cat are the source of a human-carnivore conflict and key to its solution. PNAS 117:33325-33333. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002487117
Rural central Namibia is one of the most important strongholds of the declining global cheetah population. Here, the rarest large African cat lives on privately owned farmland. A traditional conflict poses a threat to them as they occasionally prey on cattle calves. New insights into the cheetah’s spatial behaviour provide a viable solution to this human-wildlife conflict: “communication hubs” form hotspots of cheetah activity, leading to substantially less activity in the vast areas between the cores of the territories.
The map illustrates the movement behaviour of three floaters that regularly visit these communication hubs. All of them frequently move into the “P Hub” during the period from 16 to 31 December 2020 (highlighted tracks).
The Cheetah Research Project (CRP) of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) has been established in the farmlands of central Namibia since 2001. The CRP team has been studying the cheetah population focusing on a variety of research topics such as behavioral ecology, spatial ecology, prey selection, population ecology, mating system, reproductive success, genetics, immunology, health status and human-wildlife conflict. The CRP aim is to provide information for evidence based decision making in conservation policy. The project findings have contributed to a better understanding of the cheetah mating system, the spatial ecology of free-ranging cheetahs and their immune system.
