The Cederberg leopard and caracal research is going well. Quinton recaptured and re-collared MC3 ("Klonkies"), replacing his old collar with a new GPS collar. He is a rather old cat - caught for the first time in June 2010.
This time he had a few nasty wounds likely from a hunting incident a few weeks ago. It's amazing - years back caracal would have been killed by farmers here, now farmers in the Cederberg Conservancy support the project and leopards and caracal are left alone to do their own thing unhindered and not persecuted. Rocky, the other male caracal has been monitored for almost 4 years now.
The research aims to understand the behaviour and ecology of these predators and how they interact with each other. Results will help in the effort to alleviate human-wildlife conflict in other parts of the country.
Dr. Quinton Martins noting Klonkie’s statistics on a datasheet.
If someone from Cell-C is reading this, note the towel...maybe Cell-C would want to become a project sponsor...
Thanks to volunteer Jurg Studer (in photo) who has been helping to monitor
traps day and night over the past week (and many times before).
Many thanks to vet, Dr Marc Walton, for his support and Dawie Burger (Driehoek) for his constant support with trapping
