Cheetah Conservation Botswana revives old herding method
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday June 17, 2024 06:00
When Jeffry Moyo, a farmer in Gantsi arrived in this area in 2014, his mind was on one thing; farm and sustain his family. He had brought close to 150 goats with him. Moyo says he kept goats, but wasn’t aware that the area had many carnivores roaming around freely. He only had his eyes fixed on the price; multiply and sell. Little did he know that he would run into conflict with cheetahs that were preying on his livestock. Moyo says every day he would lose a goat, but he thought maybe they were being killed by hyenas or jackals. The goats were diminishing and as months passed, he counted losses.
“One of the days I ended up tracing it myself after seeing some footprints on the ground. I referred to the books and realised that this was a cheetah, not a jackal,” he told a group of journalists who recently toured the area. “Sometimes it would just attack and kill three not far from my kraal and that’s when I decided no, I needed to find a solution to this issue or else my kraal would be empty in no time.”
Moyo explains he came in contact with CCB after he was referred to them by someone. At the time, he had lost over 40 goats to cheetah attacks.
“They introduced their dog here and after some time, I also trained another one here so they became two. Since then, I have never seen a cheetah around, I have never seen a skull or carcass as I used to in the bush. I realised that the livestock guarding dog (LGD) is very efficient. It is the best way to keep small stock and very cheap. A cheetah is a very calm and docile animal. Even with a small dog, it will scare it away. It will not attack but walk away from your stock. The environment is now calm because in the past they were moving here freely. I appreciated what CCB is doing because, with dogs around, we do not have to kill the cheetahs. We moved into their area, we interfered with them but the guarding dog provides the best solution,” he explains.
Moyo says the conflict between him and the cheetah almost came to a complete end as it reduced by almost 95%.
Another farmer, Rachel Kelefitlhetse, (38) who is also a beneficiary of the initiative, says the programme has proven very effective.
“I managed to branch from keeping goats to sheep and cattle due to the success of goat farming. They gave me a dog in 2015 when my goats were terrorised by small carnivores. “I realised that the method was very effective because my goats were not being attacked anymore. My losses were reduced drastically. At times, I lost over 15 goats a month. I reported every week because I was losing and that’s when I was referred to the Cheetah Conservation Botswana, who gave me a dog. It has helped me a lot,” says Kelefitlhetse.
Herding livestock with dogs is a practice that was common in the past. It was however abandoned, with time, for unknown reasons. However, to promote co-existence between farmers and the carnivore species such as cheetahs in the Kalahari region, CCB has revived this old practice. CCB, which aims to preserve the nation’s cheetah population through scientific research, outreach with farmers, community development and conservation education, and working with rural communities to promote coexistence says they had to look for solutions that are practical and inexpensive.
Botswana hosts the world’s largest population of cheetahs, with an estimated population of approximately 1,700 animals. Gantsi is considered a wildlife corridor and farming area, as such cases of human-wildlife are prevalent. This has led to most small carnivores feeding on livestock and in turn, farmers killing them in retaliation and creating that human-wildlife conflict.
CCB Farming for Conservation Coordinator, King Modise explains that livestock guarding dogs (LGDs) are dogs that are raised with livestock and instinctively protect them from threats such as carnivores and thieves. He says CCB has conducted groundbreaking research in promoting the use of local Tswana dogs as the first line of defence against carnivores.
“CCB provides free veterinary care for LGDs and support for the farmers who use them in Botswana, and CCB has a network of over 100 active LGD owners who receive newsletters, free veterinary care for their dogs, promotional materials and information about current LGD research and any other upcoming events.” Modise says they also use a demonstration farm as a training site for LGD puppies, which are trained at their facility and then placed with farmers who are experiencing conflict with cheetahs. He stated that since its inception in 2013, the LGD placement programme has placed over 130 LGDs for farmers in need.