Journal Article

Tracking data from nine free-roaming Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) collared in the Thabazimbi area, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Page-Nicholson, Samantha, Somers, Michael, Roxburgh, Lizanne, Marnewick, Kelly

2017

Overview

In partnership with the University of Pretoria, the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Carnivore Conservation Programme collared six male and three female free-roaming Cheetahs ( Acinonyx jubatus ) in the Thabazimbi area in Limpopo Province, South Africa. This study was undertaken to determine the spatial ecology of free-roaming Cheetahs that occur outside of formal protected areas on private ranchland, where they frequently come into conflict with, and are sometimes killed by, private landowners. The data were collected between September 2003 and November 2008, resulting in a total of 3165 location points (65 points from VHF collars and 3100 from GPS collars) for nine individual Cheetahs. This dataset provides distribution information about this Vulnerable species occurring outside of protected areas within South Africa. The dataset has been published to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.GBIF.org) and provides the largest dataset on Cheetahs thus far, and, although it is spatially limited to a relatively small region on the African continent, it is the first study of its kind within South Africa. Also of significance is that the fate of 6 of the 9 collared Cheetahs is known, all except one of which died of anthropogenic causes.

• Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
• Subject: Acinonyx jubatus / Africa / agricultural land / Behavioural Ecology / Biodiversity / Biodiversity & Conservation / Carnivora / carnivores / Chordata / Collars / conse / conservation programs / data collection / Data Paper (Biosciences) / Datasets / Felidae / females / free-roaming Cheetah / males / Mammalia / Placentalia / Protected species / Satellite tracking / South Africa / South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland / Southern Africa / Theria / vulnerable species / wildlife / Wildlife conservation