Tag archives for big cats
Posted by In the last three years I’ve worked tirelessly meeting people in the field of cheetah conservation both at home in California and in the countries where the cheetah still roam their natural habitat. From the ambassadors of their species in the United States to the wild cats of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, the journey…
Where Will Cougars Show Up Next?
Posted by Douglas Chadwick on March 21, 2013 
Mountain lions are spreading east of the Rockies—a challenge for wildlife managers and communities. Some friends who live a few blocks from me in the small town of Whitefish, Montana, had a house cat named Dandelion. After it went missing for two days, the family began a search through their wooded lot. In a nearby…
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Big data is helping to paint a more distinct picture of today’s eco-criminals, pinpointing links between seemingly unconnected criminal groups and illegal activities. It can cover trading in the skins and bones of endangered Asian big cats such as tigers, the trafficking of illegal timber, and uncover trends that were previously obscured, or suggest new approaches to combating the escalating worldwide onslaught on endangered species and biodiversity.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), along with a coalition of wildlife groups, has petitioned to list the African lion ((Panthera leo leo) under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Listing the species as Endangered would prohibit lion trophy importation into the U.S., an essential step to reversing the current decline of the population, according to IFAW. The African lion is the only big cat not protected under the ESA.
The king of the African savannah is in serious trouble because people are taking over the continent’s last patches of wilderness on unprecedented scale, according to a detailed study released this week. The most comprehensive assessment of lion (Panthera leo) numbers to date determined that Africa’s once-thriving savannahs are undergoing massive land-use conversion and burgeoning human population growth. The decline has had a significant impact on the lions that make their home in these savannahs; their numbers have dropped to as low as 32,000, down from hundreds of thousands estimated just 50 years ago.
Earlier this year Rolex announced the five winners of the 2012 Rolex Awards for Enterprise, who are being honored in New Delhi, India, on November 27. This profile looks at the work of 2012 Laureate Sergei Bereznuk, director of the Phoenix Fund, a small environmental NGO in Russia. Bereznuk and his team of six people are carrying out an impressive range of activities to preserve the endangered Siberian tiger over a territory of 64,000 square miles (166,000 square kilometers).
Cheetahs on the Edge--Director's Cut by Gregory Wilson for National Geographic Magazine.
Video of Sprinting Cheetahs a First in Wildlife Photography Reporting by Roff Smith with Glenn Oeland The slow-motion video is entrancing, revealing the fluid grace of the world’s fastest land animal. Every part of the sprinting cat’s anatomy—supple limbs, rippling muscles, hyperflexible spine—works together in a symphony of speed. The extraordinary footage—captured last summer…
Posted by The Big Cats Initiative Grants Program seeks to identify and support projects that engage in immediate actions leading to reductions in big cat mortality. BCI Grantees often provide updates from the field, and we love sharing them with you. BCI Grantee Florian Weise provides this dispatch from the field. By Florian J. Weise,…
“Howzit? How are the cheetahs?” ask my new friends in Cape Town. “I’m going to Bray for a few days.” “Where??” When even a South African hasn’t heard of this place, I know I’m in for another adventure. Bray is a frontier post located 200 meters from the border of Botswana in the Southern…
National Geographic Magazine Editor in Chief Chris Johns has been on some pretty big photo shoots, but this one, he says, took the cake for sophistication, human effort on every front, and cutting-edge technology. He made the comment in the Cincinnati Zoo video (above) of what it took to film the setting of a new…
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This week, National Geographic magazine published extraordinary new images of wild Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. That National Geographic was able to photograph these rarest of cheetahs is testament to 11 years of conservation work by the Iranian Department of Environment. As the only country on Earth that has managed to keep this remarkable cat alive, Iran deserves to be congratulated. (Photo by Frans Lanting, from the November 2012 issue of National Geographic Magazine.)
Tourists traveling in the Cape Town area of South Africa often make the scenic drive through wine country, which is where Cheetah Outreach is located. Founded in 1997 by Annie Beckhelling, Cheetah Outreach started off as an educational project, bringing ambassador cheetahs to the public. Since then, it has grown to a facility that trains…
Deep in the Karoo of South Africa’s Eastern Cape is a land starting over. The air is dry, the ground recovering from drought, and on high plateaus great plains of golden grass are home to large herds of zebra, red hartebeest, blesbuck and wildebeest. The animals never descend to the bushland below which is also…
The following dispatch from the field is reported by Richard Bonham, Founder and Chairman of the Maasailand Preservation Trust and Director of Operations for Big Life Foundation. LION KILLING IN KITENDEN, JUNE 2012 by Richard Bonham, Founder of the Maasailand Preservation Trust and Director of Operations for Big Life Foundation The shocking statistics of the…
Saving Lions by Reducing Conflicts With Villagers
Posted by Marcus & Kate Westberg on July 5, 2012 
Text and photos by Kate and Marcus Westberg The killing and mutilation of a lioness by a group of morani, or Maasai warriors, as part of their initiation into manhood made conservationist Anne Kent Taylor more determined than ever to protect Kenya’s big cats. With a passion for animal welfare, Anne has dedicated a large…
AfriCat (& Okonjima Lodge) is a family affair. The Hanssens, a Namibian farming family, settled on the property of Okonjima in the 1970s. They experienced first-hand the hardships and the rewards of cattle farming in Namibia. Unique insiders to the region, in contrast to most NGOs who arrive new on the scene, the Hanssens are…
Nairobi National Park is likely one of the most visited protected areas in all of Africa, home to wildlife including lions and other big cats that are possibly viewed by more people than any others in Africa. Yesterday morning, six lions were killed just outside the protected area. Big Cats Initiative Grantee Dr. Paula Kahumbu is dedicated to protecting…
Big Cats Initiative grantee Florian Weise reports on GPS tracking and camera trap photos of a beautiful four-year-old leopard in the mountains of south-west Namibia.
The Cheetah Conservation Fund, headquartered in Otjiworongo, Namibia, is a recognized leader in the field of big cat conservation. CCF is known for many projects, especially their captive cheetah population which number over fifty, some that can be returned to the wild, some that, for a variety of circumstances, cannot. This creates the specialized need…
I’m not entirely convinced this isn’t a death march. It’s high noon in the oldest desert on earth. Glancing down at the red sand to see a beetle burrowing back under, saving itself from the scorching heat, I’m transported to a long lost nature program viewed from the comfort of a ‘70s wood-paneled family room…
In Namibia, I visited a foundation with their ear to the ground on the latest technological developments in conservation. From cyber-stalking their GPS collared cheetah via Google Earth and Sirtrack to scanning footprints (spoor) into an analytical database, N/a’an ku sê Foundation is combining new tech with on-the-ground analogue (so to speak) work in the…
I asked Cheetah Conservation Botswana’s researcher, Jane Horgan, why they needed to capture and collar a female cheetah. “We wanted home range and movement data to look at the movements of cheetahs through the Ghanzi farmlands. Information about how far they move in a day, how large their home ranges are, how long they stay…
My first day in the field with Cheetah Conservation Botswana staff, I met Keith. Manager of the Ko Mogotlhong Game Farm, he drove up with his work crew to check out our activities. Since CCB has many camera traps on the farm in addition to the cage trap, I meet Keith a number of times. …
The Big Cats Initiative Grants Program seeks to identify and support projects that engage in immediate actions leading to reductions in big cat mortality. Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld, Executive Director of the African People and Wildlife Fund, has been the recipient of multiple BCI grants and provides a prime example of how the BCI and its…
The Big Cats Initiative Grants Program seeks to identify and support projects that engage in immediate actions leading to reductions in big cat mortality. BCI Grantee Florian Weise provides this dispatch from the field: Leopard given GPS collar after capture on Namibian cattle ranch A large portion of central Namibia’s landscape is used for cattle…
