Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät - Geographisches Institut

Einladung

Dr. Bettina Wachter
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Berlin

From conflict to co-existence:
Evidence-based solutions for the farmer-cheetah conflict in Namibia

Conflicts between humans and carnivores occur worldwide, particularly when humans own livestock. Developing sustainable solutions is a major challenge, especially for endangered carnivore species. Namibia is home to several endangered carnivore species, mainly cheetahs. While most of these carnivore species occur in national parks, 80% of the cheetah population lives on private farmland where farmers keep their cattle herds.

Because cheetahs occasionally kill cattle calves, a farmer-cheetah conflict has existed for decades, with many cheetahs killed by farmers. In our long-term project, we used GPS data to show that cheetahs are not evenly distributed across the landscape, but maintain communication centers that are spatially dispersed. In the communication centers there is a high level of cheetah activity, making them risk areas for cattle calves.

Using also acceleration data give us the opportunity to identify the behavior of cheetahs, including feeding site. Together with the farmers, we developed a sustainable solution to substantially reduce cattle losses through adapted cattle management away from the communication centers. This successful adaptation led to a reduction in the farmercheetah conflict and farmers killing fewer cheetahs.