Frank Scheepers

Verification Officer: Frank Scheepers

Frank was born in Clanwilliam and attended the local primary school up to grade 9. He then went on to work in Somerset West, which is where he ultimately met his wife who was from Kleinvlei in the Cederberg.

Given the choice of living in Somerset West or moving to the small hamlet of Kleinvlei and a life in the country, he chose the latter and has been happily settled there since as a small-scale farmer. While living in Kleinvlei, Frank was invited to experience a Cape Leopard Trust wilderness camp at Matjiesriver, and this is where his love for nature was nurtured.

Frank is fascinated by the beauty of leopards, even though leopards can cause economic losses to subsistence farmers like himself.

Frank is one of several Verification Officers nominated by their communities and trained by the Cape Leopard Trust to monitor leopard activity in their respective areas. Working alongside CLT Community Outreach Officer, Chavoux Luyt, the Verification Officers have been trained to keep a predation incident register, photograph and log the GPS locations of predation incidents, use a camera trap for monitoring predators and use a Blackview smartphone for data collection with Cybertracker. It is hoped this recorded information will lead to an improved understanding of leopard behaviour and ultimately aid conservation. This outreach forms part of the Cape Leopard Trust’s broader environmental education project as well proactive human-wildlife conflict prevention.

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