The Cheetah Outreach Trust on Tuesday removed five cheetahs that were caught in traps on a farm in Namaqualand over the past weekend. The animals are currently on their way to a safe location.
By Amelia Genis, senior journalist for African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Cyril Stannard from the Trust, in whose care the animals are, was approached for comment. However, he was travelling with the cheetahs and will speak with African Farming at a later stage.
The cheetahs were removed from the farm Blouplatklip near Soebatsfontein after the owner, Gert Gagiano, kept the animals in traps that SANParks personnel had provided him from Friday to Monday morning.
Eight Ewes Killed
This occurred after the cheetahs killed eight pregnant ewes on his property in May this year.
Gagiano says the traps were initially placed in a section of the Namaqua National Park. However, he suggested to the park officials that they be relocated to another area where he and a worker had observed their tracks.
They then gave him the traps to place at his discretion. Because the veld was beautiful where he placed the traps, he decided last Thursday to put young ewes there.
Friday morning, a large female cat was in one of the traps. On Saturday morning, a young cheetah was spotted, but three others ran away. “When I went to look on Sunday morning, two were sitting in a trap. Monday morning, there was another one.”
However, he believes there are more than the five cheetahs that were caught in the traps.
Origin Traced
Gagiano says the cats will be relocated to a cheetah conservation and research centre at De Wildt in the North West.
If the animals have chips, these will be scanned to identify whose cheetahs they are and how they ended up in Namaqualand. They will also compare their DNA with genetic material in their DNA bank to determine which population they belong to.
Although the cheetahs didn’t catch any of his animals this time, they caught 18 of his ewes at the end of March and the beginning of April.Gagiano says there were rumours on social media some time ago that he had shot the cats dead, but this is not true. “I don’t want to kill them; there are so few cheetahs left in South Africa. There’s no way I would kill them. The animals are beautiful; just not when they’re walking around here.”
