Set in the beautiful hills outside of Santa Rosa California is a privately owned zoo called Safari West http://www.safariwest.com/home/

With a brief stop to visit another friend and previous work colleague – Lisa Hendrickson – and a short visit to Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon… we landed our ACK team in Phoenix for the annual Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) conference. Cosmas and I presented updates to the Cheetah Species Survival Plan (SSP)and the Felid Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) after their business sessions were completed. The passion and dedication of the members of these groups for the long-term stability of cheetah and other felines is commendable.

Predator decoy
Cheetah tracks were seen in the vicinity of the predator decoy camera site that was set up near the Ulu Conservancy. The tracks were within visual distance of the decoy, but no cheetahs were caught on the cameras. At previous sites the most common animal caught on the traps set with the decoy were bush baby. Our preliminary evaluation is that the predator decoy most commonly used by coyote hunters… is not attractive to wild cheetahs.

It was reported that poachers cut down several hundred meters of the bottles from the fence-line at the ICT. They cut some holes in the fence and used snares to catch animals chased through the holes. There had been no rains for several weeks, and the water points were once again drying. It was beginning to feel like we were back at square one!

Purchase this beau­ti­fully writ­ten and illus­trated children’s book for all chee­tah lovers - young and old: Why the Cheetah Hunts at Night.

Find out how the chee­tah got his tear lines in this fictional folk­loric tale that you will be read­ing over and over again.

This book is writ­ten for us by Aunty Kiko and illus­trated with rich, expres­sive water­color paint­ings, by skilled artist, Moses Wanjuki.

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Christmas and 2013 are just around the corner. Celebrate the upcom­ing new year by pur­chas­ing the beau­ti­ful new 2013 chee­tah cal­en­dar, ADAPTATIONS. It will make a perfect gift you, your friends and/or fam­ily to enjoy the entire year. The breath tak­ing pho­tos were taken by Frederico Veronesi (www.federicoveronesi.com) and artist Guy Coombs (the spot­less chee­tah pic­ture).

Proceeds sup­port Action for Cheetahs research, projects and staff

http://www.cathaven.com/Catalog.aspx?catid=3