Dinokeng’s Cheetahs: Part One – From Skepticism to Success
The story of Dinokeng’s Cheetahs: Part One begins with an improbable vision – reintroducing Africa’s most endangered big cat just 30 minutes from Pretoria. What started as a seemingly unrealistic dream in 2007 has blossomed into one of South Africa’s most remarkable conservation successes, with Dinokeng Game Reserve now supporting 25 wild cheetahs across its 19,000 hectares.
Against All Odds
When Vincent van der Merwe first surveyed the area in 2008, the landscape told a story of agricultural transformation:
- Rusted farm equipment littering the veld
- Endless fence lines fragmenting the land
- Skepticism from conservationists about urban wildlife potential
Yet through unprecedented collaboration between 126 landowners and government, Dinokeng became:
- Gauteng’s first Big Five reserve
- A vital cheetah metapopulation stronghold
- Proof that wildlife and urban areas can coexist
The First Cheetah Pioneers
The initial 2012 reintroduction faced challenges:
- The Darlington Male: A notorious escape artist with a 6-month, 34-goat rampage across the Eastern Cape
- The Karongwe Female: A lion-savvy survivor from the Lowveld
- Early successes (3 cubs born in 2013) followed by heartbreaking losses
Despite setbacks, these pioneers proved Dinokeng’s potential, with their genetics still contributing to metapopulations as far as Malawi today.
A Conservation Laboratory
Dinokeng’s unique urban-edge location has provided invaluable insights:
- How cheetahs adapt to mixed prey densities
- The importance of “soft reserves” like Rietvlei for founder populations
- The resilience of cheetahs in human-modified landscapes
“What seemed impossible fifteen years ago has rewritten the rules of urban-edge conservation,” reflects van der Merwe.
Stay tuned for Part Two, where we reveal how the unlikely Rietvlei female defied expectations and helped establish Dinokeng’s thriving cheetah population.
Contact the EWT Carnivore Conservation Programme: vincentv@ewt.org.za
Dinokeng’s Cheetahs: Part Two: The Unlikely Heroes of Gauteng’s Wilderness
The story of Dinokeng’s Cheetahs: Part Two continues where Part One left off, showcasing how the Rietvlei female – initially deemed unsuitable for release – became the matriarch of Dinokeng Game Reserve’s thriving cheetah population. Today, this urban-edge reserve (www.dinokengreserve.co.za) supports 25 cheetahs, proving that conservation can flourish even near major cities.
Against All Odds: The Rietvlei Female’s Legacy
- Supermother status: Raised 3 litters to independence
- Genetic contributions: Her offspring now roam reserves from Malawi to Zululand
- Rare allomothering behavior: Witnessed when she shared parenting duties with her daughter and their combined 11 cubs
The Rollercoaster of Cheetah Conservation
The journey included both victories and devastating losses:
- The Lalibela males’ triumph: Their legendary stand against a Pilanesberg leopard (video)
- Poaching tragedies: A female found skinned, her paws hacked off for muthi
- Against-the-odds survival: Her 5 orphaned cubs rescued and now in rewilding program
Why Dinokeng Matters
This project demonstrates:
- Cheetah adaptability: Thriving in human-modified landscapes
- Metapopulation strength: 63 reserves collaborating via EWT’s programme
- Urban conservation potential: Wildlife coexisting 30 minutes from Pretoria
“These cats rewrite what we thought possible,” says Vincent van der Merwe, EWT’s Cheetah Metapopulation Coordinator. “From snare victims to supermoms, their stories define modern conservation.”
How You Can Help
Support this work through:
The takeaway? Even near cities, with proper management and community support, Africa’s wildlife can not only survive but thrive.
CONSERVATION CONVERSATIONS
“How well we communicate with each other about nature and environmental affairs will affect how well we address the ecological crisis’’
(Meisner, Environmental Communication: What is it and why it matters, 2015)
We use environmental communication to express our attitude towards the environment or to share information on environmental affairs. Whether it is sharing knowledge through a zoology lecture at university, signing a petition to stop the manufacture of single-use plastics, or even through the act of being a vegetarian, these are all forms of environmental communication. Environmental communication, just as any other form of communication, uses verbal and non-verbal forms, and the selection of these will determine the outcome of the communication process. In an article written by Mark Meisner (2015), he states that communication shapes how we see and value the world. In this light, environmental communication should create meaning for people on environmental and conservation issues, thereby driving actions that enhance more conscious living and mindfulness towards all living things.
The EWT’s Threatened Amphibian Programme has developed an Environmental Communication Strategy to ensure that our conservation messaging regarding the value and importance of frogs and reptiles leads to a positive shift in public attitudes towards these creatures and their habitats. The foundation of this strategy is based on designing “conservation conversations” tailored to the context, culture, and concerns of target communities. An example of a conservation conversation package would be using satellite imagery to show changes in a community over time and relating how these changes impact living conditions. Figure 1, satellite imagery compares the changing landscape in Adams Mission between 2005 (left) and 2020 (right).
Figure 1:Satellite image comparing the density in Umlazi and Isipingo in 2005 and 2020.
Figure 2: Spatial distribution in 2005 of housing in Adams Mission (Left) which is sparsely distributed as compared to Adams Mission in 2020 on the right which is densely populated.
This comparative visual tool promotes dialogue by demonstrating the increase in population size and density over time, and discussions are held on the consequences this may have on living conditions in relation to space availability and quality of resources such as water. Satellite images (Figure 2) and photographs (Figure 3) show the state of living conditions in densely populated neighbouring communities, demonstrating the environmental and social implications of our increasing population. This comparison assists in building a visual reference to the possible future living conditions of the Adams Mission community if unrestricted and unsustainable development continues.
These tools enable dialogue that contextualises environmental impacts such as poor water quality, limited land availability for food security, increased flood risk through wetland destruction, or reduced availability of natural resources such as plants commonly used in medicinal treatments.
We track the conversations through sentiment analysis to determine how people feel about the context of the conversation, and we have found that in areas where ecological integrity is higher, for example, in Adams Mission, there is a more positive sentiment, as compared to the conversations held in areas with poor ecological integrity, such as in Isipingo (Figure 4).
In addition, our knowledge-building strategies within the formal education system incorporate demonstrable concepts based on contextual circumstances. For instance, asking learners from a school to bring in a water sample from their local river to test the quality (Figure 4) builds a greater understanding of the causes of poor water quality than if a person just told learners that the water quality of their local river is in poor condition. This interactive process allows people to feel a part of the outcome and allows for feedback to determine the level of understanding, interpretation and acceptance of a message.
These two examples of our conservation conversations allow for developing a co-constructed message based on contextual evidence by all persons engaged in the conversation.
In today’s world, where there are a host of environmental voices speaking about a huge range of different issues, we must hold productive conservation conversations to ensure that collectively the environmental communication results in a shift in attitude as well as action towards a more sustainable society that embodies consciousness towards and for the world around us and all its inhabitants.
Figure 5: Learners conducting a water quality assessment of the Isipingo River.
References:
Meisner, M. (2015, November). Environmental Communication: What is it and why it matters. Retrieved June 08, 2021, from The International Environmental Communication Association: https://theieca.org/resources/environmental-communication-what-it-and-why-it-matters
KAROO FOREVER – IN CELEBRATION OF KNOWLEDGE
Bonnie Schumann, Nama Karoo Coordinator, EWT Dryland Conservation Programme, bonnies@ewt.org.za Would you like to know about optimising veld recovery after droughts? Or what your rights are in terms of developments near you that you do not support? Did you know about a great new app that focuses specifically on helping you to get to know your Nama-Karoo plants? You can download this app on Android and Apple devices. All this information and many more resources are available on the Karoo Forever website launched by the EWT’s Drylands Conservation Programme last year.
The website is one of the outcomes of the Karoo Forever Sustainable Land Management Project that we initiated four years ago. Throughout this project, we developed a range of resources for farmers. We realised there was a need for a dedicated platform on which to make these resources available to farmers. Sonja Berg of iXOXO – The Idea Factory took up the challenge to develop a user-friendly website providing various resources, ranging from a series of webinars to best practice guidelines for various regenerative approaches to managing Karoo farmland. By developing the digital platform, we have ensured that the great deal of valuable knowledge shared by experts during live and digital events remains available to anyone interested in learning more about sustainable land management in the Drylands. The emphasis is on the Karoo, but the content is relevant to drylands worldwide. During 2018 we developed, in collaboration with agricultural specialists, an Integrated Farm Planning and Management training (IFP) course. The course was presented twice in the Northern Cape in 2019, but due to the COVID-19 related lockdowns imposed in 2020, additional live courses scheduled weren’t presented. Fortunately, we were already well on the way to adapting the FREE course for our online platform, so it went “live” on the website in March 2020.
Interestingly, besides farmers and agricultural extension officers, we have had participants ranging from students to tour guides and conservation officials completing this “farming” course. These include several Western and Northern Cape conservation officials. The conservation officials work with landowners, mainly in a biodiversity stewardship context, and reported to us that the knowledge gained has given them a better understanding of sustainable land management principles and illuminated some of the challenges and solutions faced by farmers who farm in the drylands. This knowledge is helping to inform their approach to farmers with a view to more effectively integrating conservation and agricultural priorities.
When Sir Francis Bacon published in his work, Meditationes Sacrae (1597), the saying: “knowledge itself is power“, he most likely wanted to convey the idea that having and sharing knowledge is the cornerstone of reputation and influence, and therefore power; all achievements emanate from this. More than 400 years later, access to knowledge is merely the click of a button away. However, it is no longer so much about influence and reputation as it is about survival and how we have to start changing the way we are doing things. Sharing knowledge and having discussions around solution-based approaches will empower people to act positively and be the change that is needed. We celebrate the sharing of knowledge on the Karoo Forever website and hope to see many more users visiting the platform, completing the IFP course, and sharing their solutions through the various resources.
The content on the website was made possible through contributions from several specialists whom you will meet through the webinars and other resources. We thank them all for generously sharing their expertise and passion in the interest of promoting sustainable land management in the magnificent drylands of the Karoo.
The Karoo Forever website is brought to you by the EWT’s Drylands Conservation Programme, which focuses on promoting sustainable land management in the Karoo. The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility and managed by the United Nations Development Program in partnership with the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development.
Links to:
GUEST ARTICLE: INVESTIGATING IMPACTS
Manisha Bhardwaj, Postdoctoral Researcher, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, manisha.bhardwaj@slu.se The ecological impacts of roads and railways on wildlife can be far-reaching and detrimental. For example, transportation infrastructure contributes to habitat loss and fragmentation, where animals are impeded from travelling through their environment without avoiding transportation infrastructure or the mortality risks involved in crossing roads and railways. In addition, habitat quality adjacent to roads can be compromised as noise and light from traffic and streetlights spill into the surroundings. These impacts, individually and cumulatively, can have devastating effects on wildlife, reducing their ability to persist in landscapes. These are the types of implications I study.
My name is Manisha Bhardwaj. I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, investigating the impacts of the built environment and human activity on wildlife populations. My interests include understanding how anthropogenic activities impact the ecology and behaviour of animals. I am particularly interested in the roles noise and light pollution play in wildlife populations’ persistence and how animals respond to these stresses behaviourally. In addition, I enjoy exploring human-wildlife interactions and the interconnectedness between our activities as people, the landscapes we occupy, and the landscapes needed for wildlife.
My interest in road and railway ecology has brought me fruitful and fulfilling collaborations with the EWT, particularly with the Wildlife and Transport Programme. Together with Wendy Collinson and Paul Allin from Transfrontier Africa, we are investigating the impacts of railways on wildlife in the Greater-Kruger National Park Region in the first formal South African railway ecology programme. Our project brings together NGOs, researchers, and managers to address the impacts of railways on native fauna such as Elephants, Hyaena, Wild Dogs, and Impalas. We have investigated where and when wildlife cross railways and collisions occur, how effective mitigation strategies can be to reducing the rate of collisions, and how animals react to oncoming trains. With this project, we will provide insights into this issue to reduce the overall impacts on South Africa’s wildlife.
