Cheetah Habituation Has Begun

Since the arrival of the new cheetah boys six weeks ago the GVI Karongwe staff have been working with them on a regular basis to habituate them.

The ‘Tswalu Boys’ are quite used to vehicles, however have had very little experience of humans in close proximity on foot. In order for us to continue collecting valuable data on cheetah, as we have done for years with Jabu and Djuma, we need these boys to become habituated to our presence and in particular with us walking in on them.

Whilst they are still in their holding boma ‘acclimatising’ to their new surroundings, it gives us a good opportunity to start to the habituation training. The training consists of a number of stages, each time trying to decrease the distance that the animal feels comfortable in our presence. Habituation training is not an exact science, not only is every animal different but each individual will react differently every day depending on a large variety of factors, most of which you won’t know anything about. However the principle is always the same, we want to ensure that the animals have only neutral interactions with us and therefore are not imprinted with any negative associations in our presence but also, and just as importantly, they do not associate us with positive interactions. This is important because we need the animals to behave naturally and not in a way that is affected because of our presence. These are wild animals and we certainly don’t want them running up to us when they see us, like pet dogs, just as much as we don’t want them running away from us prohibiting us from collecting data. We want to be able to record natural behaviour.

In the beginning, while the boys were still settling in, we just approached them in the vehicles from outside the fence. The cheetah, having spent time in a holding boma on Tswalu before coming here, are used to being fed from a vehicle. We wanted to make sure that they do not associate our vehicle with being fed. Initially when we drove up they were hiding from view in the long grass, obviously still nervous about being moved to a new home, so we spent a lot of time just sitting in the vehicles close by them, talking in normal voices and having the radios on. It is important for them to get used all the different sounds they will hear during game drive times and in particular to our voices so we can alert them to us approaching them when walking through thick bush, so as not to startle them. As funny as it might sound, I personally spent hours reading books to them, just so they learn the sound of my voice.

After a while the boys stopped hiding in the long grass and we would find them sitting close to the fence, once they were used to the vehicles we started walking up to them talking gently the whole time, but still on the other side of the fence. For the most part they did not react at all, just sat watching us intently. On a couple of occasions when they have been particularly hungry they have snarled and mock charged us. At times like this we just walk away again and return after they have been fed. We don’t want to push them and for them to have a negative imprint of a time when we harassed them when they were feeling hungry and stressed.

Once we were satisfied that they were comfortable with us on the outside of the fence we started going into the boma with them on foot.  We were pleasantly surprised to find they were fairly relaxed and after a few encounters we have now got to the stage where we can walk within 10 metres of the boys with them just sitting looking relaxed, even starting to fall asleep with us standing nearby.

Over the next few weeks we are hoping to start taking the volunteers into the boma with the cheetah, as they now need to get used to having groups of people walking with them, not just one or two people at a time.

Once they are released from the boma we will carry on with the habituation process, tracking them every day and walking in with them. Once we are satisfied they are well used to the presence of groups of people on foot, the game drives from the lodges will also be able to walk guests in like they used to with Jabu and Djuma, such a special and unique experience.

Rosie Miles

Base Manager GVI Karongwe

Cheetah Habituation Has Begun