n order to accurately assess the status of the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus it is necessary
to obtain data on numbers and demographic trends. However, cheetahs are notoriously
difficult to survey because they occur at very low population densities and are often shy and
elusive. In South Africa the problem is further complicated in areas where land is privately
owned, restricting access, with dense bush and cheetahs that are frequently persecuted.
Cheetahs are individually identifiable by their unique spot patterns, making them ideal
candidates for capture–recapture surveys. Photographs of cheetahs were obtained using
four camera traps placed successively at a total of 12 trap locations in areas of known
cheetah activity within a 300 km² area in the Thabazimbi district of the Limpopo Province.
During 10 trapping periods, five different cheetahs were photographed. These results were
used to generate capture histories for each cheetah and the data were analysed using the
capture–recapture software package CAPTURE. Closure tests indicated that the population
was closed (P = 0.056). The Mh model was used to deal with possible heterogeneous capture
probabilities among individual cheetahs. Closure tests did not reject the model assumption
of population closure (P = 0.056).TheMh model produced a capture probability of 0.17 with an
estimate of 6–14 cheetahs (P = 0.95) and a mean population size of seven cheetahs
(S.E. = 1.93). These results are promising and will be improved with employment of more
camera traps and sampling a larger area.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1000683 |
| Date | 15 October 2007 |
| Creators | Marnewick, K, Funston, PJ, Karanth, KU |
| Publisher | Southern African Wildlife Management Association |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | Text |
| Source | South African Journal of Wildlife Research, |
| Rights | Southern African Wildlife Management Association |
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