We asked and you stepped up to assist. Our goal for the 2023 Mid-Year Fundraiser was $15,000 and you made it happen! Every bit that went into making this achievement possible is greatly appreciated.

The funds will go directly toward building a Care and Training Facility for our Livestock Guarding Dog programme. This facility is part of the infrastructure that will be at our forever home. We look forward to welcoming farmers and students to learn more about the LGD programme. We are excited to establish an area that will cater to veterinary needs of puppies, livestock, and even cheetahs. This investment will go a long way.

​From us all at CCB, we'd like to extend a gesture of gratitude to each and every single one of our supporters. Le kamoso, re a leboga!

Ncojane is a small village located in the Ghanzi District in western Botswana, approximately 20 kilometres from the border with Namibia. The area is experiencing significant desertification due to poor livestock management practices and bushmeat poaching. These two factors result in a combination of unproductive rangelands, resulting in weak livestock and limited wildlife for carnivores to prey on. This results in the livestock in the area being more vulnerable to attacks from cheetahs, African wild dogs, leopards, jackals and lions. Recently we received reports from farmers in the area who lost a total of sixteen goats to predators, and our CCB’s Farming for Conservation (FFC) team was quick to respond and assist.
 
As part of its capacity building mandate, on the 4th of May 2023 CCB held a workshop at Ncojane, hosting farmers from nearby cattleposts and farms. This workshop was organised in response to the increasing reports of conflicts between farmers and predators. The workshop aimed to engage with farmers and share skills on carnivore-friendly farming techniques that these farmers could adopt to promote coexistence with carnivores. Topics that were discussed included grazing management, anti-poaching, reducing the risk of depredation and herd health. There were also presentations from different stakeholders who are involved in wildlife conservation issues; including the Department of Veterinary Services, Department of Wildlife and National Parks, the Botswana Police and two local farmers’ Committees (Lesha Chasha and Ncojane Famers’ Committee). We are thankful to all involved in the workshop and hope that with the newfound information, these farmers will be equipped with the knowledge to improve the productivity of their farms whilst also coexisting with carnivores. 

As we prepare to start construction on staff accommodation at our new camp, we want to get ready to move our demonstration farm and livestock guarding dog (LGD) training facility too. Thankfully, the farm we bought already has a livestock enclosure that we will be able to modify for our demonstration farm. But we still need to develop safe areas to house our LGD puppies during training before we deliver them over to farmers. We have learned a lot from the recent shutting down of our LGD training centre due to a nation-wide parvovirus outbreak, and the plans for our new LGD training facility include a hygienic quarantine area for new incoming puppies, to reduce the risk of diseases transfer to our demonstration farm and other LGDs. This will ensure that our LGDs remain in the best health, and that we can continue to place LGDs with farmers who are experiencing conflict with carnivores.

As well as the LGD quarantine and housing areas, this facility will also include a veterinary clinic. This clinic will give us a clean and hygienic environment to care for any puppies, LGDs, or livestock that are in need of medical assistance. This facility will also provide a safe environment to tend to any injured or orphaned cheetahs that come into our care.

The facility will include:
• sanitary puppy quarantine facility
• dog houses
• weather-proof shading that enables good ventilation
• a veterinary clinic to attend to all puppy, dog, livestock and cheetah needs
• a storage area for equipment & veterinary supplies.

We need your help to make this facility a reality! For the month of July, we aim to raise $15,000 to build our brand new LGD Puppy Training and Care facility.

If you love our LGD programme as much as we do, this is your chance to become a lasting part of it! Help us to build our new LGD training facility by making a donation via this link. No amount is too small.

From all of us at the CCB team, the farmers and from all the puppies – thank you for your support!

​Re a leboga.

​CCB looks on with great pride at the work of Marie-Charlotte Gielen, one of our resident PhD candidates. Marie recently joined forces with Leopard Ecology & Conservation (LEC) and WildCRU to facilitate a tracking training workshop for Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) officers in Khutse Game Reserve.
 
The training engaged 15 officers from the Central District DWNP Research and Problem Animal Control (PAC) departments. The focus of the training was the identification of large- and medium-sized Kalahari mammal tracks. Marie, whose PhD research incorporates the technologies of indigenous trackers from the western Kalahari, and Alessandro Araldi introduced the DWNP team to the concepts of how track surveys can be used for population estimates and fence surveys with varying methodologies and the support of CyberTracker and QGIS software.
 
The different workshop themes were:
1. How to assess human-wildlife conflict incidences through track identification and ageing.
2. Population density estimation.
3. Wildlife interaction with fences.
4. Management implications and recommendations that can arise from these surveys.
 
“The first three themes had a theory component given at the LEC camp, followed by a practice component in Khutse Game Reserve including practice with the data capture and mapping software” says Marie, while “the fourth was basically an applied summary of the workshop with a take home message.” 
 
On her particular role in the process, Marie shares that “it involved preparing and giving lectures on track identification and ageing, the use of tracks for population density estimation using the Formozov-Malyshev-Pereleshin (or FMP) formula, the question of detectability in wildlife monitoring techniques and track surveys in particular, and assisting practice sessions on QGIS & Excel on computer, and population density track surveys in the field.”
 
The display of skills by local trackers served as an inspiration to the officers, shedding light on the capabilities imbedded in applying oneself. This workshop is a good example of the ongoing collaboration between research groups through the Botswana Carnivore Forum. The Botswana Carnivore Forum (BCF) sees research and conservation organisations and individuals join forces to tackle regional and national conservation and research priorities to further advance conservation in Botswana. “Working together towards a shared goal, we are stronger and more efficient” says Jane Horgan, BCF steering committee member and CCB staff member. “We can achieve so much more as a group than we can just by focusing on our own activities and localities.”
 
The group attending the tracker training session’s enthusiasm and interest were encouraging to Marie “as we had two different departments (PAC and research), thus we tried to touch on aspects that could be interesting for both while keeping them accessible for both.” She reflects that they received heartwarming thank yous at the end from the attendees, “many saying that they learned a lot and feel they should share the new acquired knowledge with their peers, and keep applying it so as to not lose it.”
 
The group had stimulating discussions together on avenues to address requests given to the DWNP research departments by their superiors (e.g. how to identify elephants’ potentially newly established migration route in the Central District), using tracks but also other data, such as PAC data. “We offered to stay in touch, so they can reach out to us, if they wish, for some inputs on research design or questions about their own research that they would like to implement in the future.”
 
With Marie’s PhD work looking at conserving the Kgalagadi Wildlife Corridor, Marie-Charlotte is part of a great network of researchers and conservationists working toward realising coexistence. We look forward to seeing more of what comes from such collaborations, as we know the work ahead requires joint efforts for lasting success.

Photos courtesy of ​Leopard Ecology & Conservation.