The new websites from Africat and Okonjima are now live,check out the new Africat site and see the new logo which is superb and embodies the true charisma of the cheetah.

Look out for this new prime time broadcast on ITV starting Friday the 10th September at 8pm until 8.30pm.This incredible 12  part series follows the release of the first group of cheetahs into the new enclosure and will give everyone a true insight into the magnificent work carried out at the Africat Foundation.

After a hectic July it was good to see that the 1^st was uneventful. August started on the 2^nd with a surprising radio call from Mush, the guy busy trying to catch all the predators in the area that will encompass the 16,000 hectare rehab camp before we finish the fencing. He had caught a spotted Hyaena in one of the box traps, although we did have a couple of visits from wild Hyaena when we had Rupert, Paddington and Pooh in captivity they are a fairly rare sight in this area. 

This one turned out to be a 3 year old [approx] male, he was extremely calm considering he was a wild animal and went down under the anesthetic very fast. His collaring caused no problems and he was left in the trap to recover and then released later that night. He has since been tracked on many occasions and seems to be staying in the same area, possibly attracted to the calls of our three in the 4,000 hectare camp.

 A call from a farmers wife in Omaruru on the night of the 5^th started Carla and I rushing around looking for the baby bottles, snuggle kitties and all the paraphernalia associated with hand rearing a cub. The farm workers had picked up a small leopard cub in the bush very thin and dehydrated. As the farmer’s wife was coming in to Otjiwarongo to have her hair done she would bring the cub so I arranged to meet her at the hairdressers, crate in hand. Pickles, as we came to name her, was a very frightened ball of fluff with extremely sharp teeth and claws.  

Upon returning to Africat I weighed her [1.6 kilos] so I could work out her food intake and set about mixing up kitten milk in a small baby bottle. We figured she was about one month old, her eyes were open but were still blue [a leopards eyes turn yellow as it gets older and I will let you all know when that happens], one of the problems with having a cub whose eyes have already opened is that it has already seen it’s Mother and therefore has bonded to her and her scent. If you get a cub whose eyes have not yet opened then you are the first thing it sees and you are Mum and this makes life a lot easier in more ways than one. Having lived a wild life for a month it is not easy for the cub to adjust to being with people and in a strange environment, its instinct kicks in and all it wants to do is run away and hide. The first feeding attempt bears witness to this as it was a somewhat bloody affair [for me not Pickles].

 She had already drank a bit of water but after a day of not accepting any milk we decided to try some minced chicken which she devoured in seconds. That left only one of the three vital functions a cub has to perform to survive, this last one was achieved three days later. I think it was the fact that I had threatened a squirt of liquid paraffin that bought about this momentous occasion but it was a nice healthy size, shape and consistency and being experts on this subject both Carla and I were very happy to see it. 

The fact that she was on to solids saved us a lot of work and it meant that we could start getting her used to eating food that is high in calcium which is essential at this early age. One cub is always a problem as they need extra attention, if there are siblings at least they play together even if you are not around, they need to be stimulated and have lots of exercise. They learn all about stalking and hunting through play and my Zimmer frame does not allow me to move around as fast as I should! We decided to try and introduce her to Coco Bean, the African wild cat that we got as a kitten in February. He is now coming and going as he pleases through the cat flap and occasionally bringing presents in for Carla.

They hit it off immediately. At first Pickles was not sure what to do when Beanie jumped on her and started biting her neck and all she did was cry, after two days she realized she was also equipped with some formidable weapons and started retaliating. Now there days are spent together, we have an outside area where they can get some sunshine, also very important for the absorption of vitamin D and they spend a lot of time in the house chasing each other around. Beanie can still go in and out of his cat flap and does so once the annoying brat gets too much. Pickles spends the nights at my house and sleeps some of the time on my bed, luckily she has got used to the litter tray and has stopped wetting the bed, Carla thinks it may be me as I am getting on a bit!!! I will keep you informed as to her progress but I think everyone, accept Coco Bean, realises that they cannot stay together for ever.

The 7^th had me traveling to the Waterberg area to pick up a leopard. It turned out to be female which had unfortunately got its tail broken by the door of the trap, it was not just a break as the end of the bone was exposed about 6 inches from the end of the tail and I suspected it needed amputating. Once I returned to Africat I called Axel, our vet, and arranged for him to see the leopard. I drove the leopard into the vets on Sunday as I had to go and pick up a cheetah Mother and 4 cubs on Monday. 

I was told the cubs were about 6 months old, small terrier size, so using two cars I loaded one large crate and four smaller crates that would accommodate four terrier size cheetahs. Upon reaching the farm and seeing the cheetahs I could see a slight problem, the cubs were at least 13 months old and somewhat larger than a terrier more like an Alsatian. As long as they stayed laying down then all was fine, luckily with the drugs in their system they were fairly drowsy and once back at Africat I transferred them into larger crates. They were released, with Mum, the next morning no worse for wear.

That same day I had to pick up the leopard from the Vets, now sporting a somewhat shorter tail, and take her to a farm in Otavi for release which went well.

Ah bliss, four days with no pick ups. The 16^th saw the arrival of Gerhard Steenkamp, our dental Vet from South Africa, he was going to try and get trough 20 of our cheetahs that desperately needed some dental work which consisted of root canals and extractions. Although this meant I needed to dart some cheetahs it was a very sedate week for me as he normally spent 3 hours on each animal and for some a lot longer. Gerhard managed to work on 13 of the cheetahs [we started with the worse cases first] and now we are left with our older cheetahs having to eat soft foods only due to the lack of teeth.

On the 20^th I weighed Pickles, she had doubled her weight in two weeks and was now 3.2 kilos and had calmed down somewhat.

Towards the end of the month I had to go to Kamenjab to pick up a female leopard, our 20^th this year. Then on the 31^st I had to take Spike, our oldest cheetah at 17 years, to the vets as her left eye was clouding over. She has remained at the Vets for continued treatment.

More next month.