Namibia - June/July 2014

We spent a day at Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia with Dr Laurie Marker and her partner Bruce and their amazing team.  We had a great morning watching the cheetahs run.  Most of the orphan cheetahs they take in will be released back to the wild but sadly not all of them can be.  They have 4 ambassador cheetahs that cannot be released but are able to help with education and the work of CCF.   As you can imagine it was a very special day and to be up and close and personal to these beautiful animals is simply inspiring, they purr like cats and are just so fast.  Taking photos was a challenge as they are running after a cloth on a low wire line and then can only due a few runs because of the heat.  

The ambassador cheetahs are Tiger Lily, Peter, Senay and Khayjay and this is our group with Laurie and 4 of her team + our safari group with Johnny and Angie Scott.



Mmmmmmmm - i don't seem to be able to upload anymore just now it says the connections has been lost so I will try again later with some close ups of the cheetahs. To upload that one photos took ages longer that it used to!

Lai

Sounds as if you had a great day at CCF Lai. Hope you can manage to upload the rest of your pics.

It really is a magical experience to get up close and personal with cheetahs and they are probably the only big cat I am happy to get close to on foot.
I have been very lucky on several trips to SA to have opportunities to interact with cheetahs. At one camp I new the head ranger and we would head out with his tracker to look for cheetah. Although the cheetah were well habituated to humans having been around humans since their cub stage they still hunted for themselves and were basically wild. When we found the cheetahs we would leave the vehicle and then walk towards them until at about 5 or 6 metres would quietly sit down on the grass next to them. Although at first a little wary of us they would soon relax and then to hear them purring is out of this world. It sounds just like a domestic cat but ten times louder. We would stay with them for a few minutes before moving off.
I was also able to meet up with a pair of cheetah bros. who were used in a similar way to the CCF ambassador cheetahs being taking round to farms to show farmers that there was no need to shoot and kill the cheetahs but that they could be captured and relocated out of harms way. The two things I particularly noticed about them was how coarse their fur was, which I suppose it needs to be to withstand the rigours of their outdoor life, and how rigid their tails are almost like a metal rod so that it can act as a rudder when they make their high speed changes of direction when hunting. Talking to their handlers they said that they did not like taking them to schools as for a cheetah a child is just about perfect prey size and however domesticated they might seem they are still essentially wild animals and are always liable to react like one!!
To be able to interact with these wonderful creatures is definitely a privilege and something one never forgets.

I was wondering if the time taken to download your photo had something to do with the file size. I have noticed that any photo larger than 3mb can take a long time to upload and I always try and reduce the file size, normally by cropping, to speed up the posting.I know that with my present camera some photos are over 8mb which I think is too big for the system to deal with!!

SM

That must have been a fantastic experience at CCF I have seen a couple of documentaries about it, and knew about the ambassador Cheetahs, it's a shame they can't be released into the wild, but at the same time they are helping the survival of their species and are safe are well looked after.
Re photo uploading. CC had a similar problem a few weeks ago, at the time the host site was updating, and it was OK the next day. I agr'ee!w!Ithaca SM big file sizes are slow to upload. Did you use the new upload procedure ?.

WS

So looking forward to seeing more pics and reading more about your trip

Did the cheetah's try to lick the salt off your skin? Their tongues are so rough!

Thanks for your patience everyone. Sadly our Broadband has been playing up again at home and finally it just died completely. Pete arranged for BT to come today and then it seems they sorted it externally yesterday afternoon so currently we are on-line

WS I did try the new way of uploading, but it takes forever, and Safariman yes my files are large but I tend to crop before I post on WAA so I must try and shrink them some more! Sadly our BB speed is seriously slow here anyway so it will always take me ages. I will have a go at the weekend and add some more photos.

Lai

It seems I can post from my work PC and not my home laptop, so here are a few from our CCF day.

(I shrank this some more)  These are all of the ambassador cheetahs









CCF breeds Anatolian Shepherd dogs to look after the goats/sheep.  They naturally bond with them and want to protect them.



The goat took a shine to Johnny



There were 3 puppies living with a few goats.  You aren't really supposed to touch or engage with the puppies as they must bond with the livestock but you can imagine what happened  



I'll post a few of us with the puppies, they were just gorgeous and I really wanted one to come home with me

Laurie with Tiger Lily







That's all for now  

Lai

Pleased that you have been able to upload your photos at last even though you had to use your work computer. The pics of the cheetahs are gorgeous must have been a super day.
I have seen a programme about the Anatolian Shepherd dogs and their use as guard dogs for livestock in Namibia to protect them from cheetahs, it must obviously work as they now breeding them. Are the goats for cheetah food or just for training purposes?

SM

Oh my that puppy is adorable! Loving the cheetah pics and hearing about your visit, thanks for sharing

Thanks everyone.  I'll try and sort out a few more to upload, I haven't done a slideshow this time due to losing most of my photos  but I've a few more of the beautiful scenery.

Lai

Must have been a beautiful experience to be so close to these very peaceful looking and pacey prowlers. Really clear and super snaps taken; fantastic shares

 GR - they are truly magnificent animals and as for the puppies  

Sadly I haven't been able to  upload at all from my laptop now and that is where all my photos are    I still want to share some puppy pics     I'll have another go now but as very small files ....

Yippee a couple more, I didn't take these two as I am in them   but the first is the friendly goat and the second is us with 3 of the puppies  





Well at least I can post pics again

Lai

Great news you can post pics again Lai

I know I've seen a documenatry on the use of Anatoli Dogs to protect against Cheetah predation, and so save them, but I cant find it up to now. However I did find this clip from CCF



WS

WS - i've not seen that clip before but it was very interesting to watch.

Lai

Nice selfie (without the taking them yourself part ) shots there Lai. Lovely additions to this threads collection. Not bad I say for one with a misbehaving laptop!

 G  R - glad you liked them,  those puppies are just totally gorgeous, and the goats kind of grew on me.

Lai