Fierce Dogs Protect Livestock, Cheetahs In Africa

Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News

March 3, 2004

An innovative program that provides guard dogs to livestock
farmers at a modest cost may be helping to save wild cheetahs in
southern Africa.

The decade-old effort is the brainchild of Laurie Marker. The U.S. biologist moved to Namibia in 1990 to help prevent livestock losses that spurred ranchers to shoot and kill hundreds of cheetahs each year.

Since 1994 the Livestock Guarding Dog Program has trained more than 200 Anatolian shepherds to protect farmed sheep and goats in Namibia. The powerful shepherds weigh 110 to 150 pounds (50 to 68 kilograms). Unlike most other breeds used to herd sheep and goats, the dogs instinctively challenge predators and scare them off with their loud, booming bark.

Local governments in Namibia allow farmers to trap and kill predators, including protected species like cheetahs, if livestock is threatened. Farmers say such steps are necessary since cheetahs can quickly kill dozens of sheep in unguarded pens known as kraals.

Twenty years ago farmers in Namibia shot as many as 800 to 900 cheetahs annually, according to Marker. Today she estimates just 200 cheetahs are shot and killed each year in the country, thanks in part to her guard-dog program and related educational efforts.

Soft Spot for Cheetahs

A cheetah expert, Marker first traveled to Namibia in 1977 to learn if a cheetah born and bred in captivity in the United States could hunt in the wild. It was then that Marker said she first became aware of the threats farmers and cheetahs posed one another.

Namibia is home to an estimated 3,000 cheetahs, the most of any country. The figure represents one-fourth of the estimated 12,000 cheetahs left in the world. Conservationists view Namibia as one of the last few strongholds for the endangered species.

Marker discovered that many cheetahs were killed as a preventative measure, a practice handed down among generations of farmers. Compounding the problem was the fact that cheetahs are daytime hunters and not aggressive toward humans, making them easy targets for farmers.

During subsequent trips to Africa in the 1980s, Marker realized that the cheetah population was rapidly declining and that something had to be done to save them. So in 1990, she changed the focus of her work.

Quitting a job she held for 16 years studying and breeding captive cheetahs at a U.S. a wild-animal park, Marker moved to Namibia, in southern Africa. There she created the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), a nonprofit research and education center, veterinary clinic, and farm.

"In the beginning many farmers wondered what I was doing here," Marker wrote in an e-mail interview with National Geographic News. "Some of the farmers would say, 'Oh, if you like cheetahs, take them all back to the U.S. with you.'" Marker said she quickly told the farmers she wasn't going back to the U.S., so they were stuck with both her and the cats. "This usually got quite a little laugh from them," she said.

Marker interviewed farmers about their work and problems encountered with predators in order to develop a program around the needs of the community. "They liked my approach—I was not confrontational," she said. "I was interested in them as farmers."

Some farmers Marker spoke with used herding dogs. But when the dogs saw danger, they instinctively tried to move the animals to safety, triggering the cheetah's natural instinct to stalk and chase. Ironically the dogs were causing more sheep and goats to be killed as a result.

Marker set out to find another type of dog that would protect rather than herd the animals. During her research, she came across the Anatolian shepherd, a breed used by Turkish shepherds for thousand of years as the first line of defense against predators.

The canine's formidable height (they stand 27 to 29 inches/69 to 74 centimeters tall) can help intimidate predators. The dogs live with their flocks and are independent thinkers, needing little direction to do their jobs. Their short coats are also well suited to Namibia's hot climate.

With their instinctive guarding ability, Anatolia shepherds have successfully warded off more than cheetahs on Namibian farms—jackals, caracal lynx, leopards, and baboons have been turned away.

The Anatolians are bred at CCF's headquarters. About 25 are placed on farms each year. There is no fee to obtain a dog. However, commercial farmers are asked for a U.S. $100 donation to cover the cost of vaccinations and neutering or spaying.

Once a dog is placed, CCF staff members contact its new owner every month for half a year to answer questions and offer advice. After that, regular contact is made with the owner throughout the dog's life.

Since the program started, Marker said most participating farmers have reported zero loss of livestock and high satisfaction with their dogs' performance.

Currently the program has a waiting list of more than 50 farmers. In an e-mail interview, Hannes de Haast, a sheep and cattle rancher who joined the program almost three years ago, says his Anatolian is an invaluable asset.

"I don't want to think what could have happened without her on the farm," de Haast said. He notes that every year disease, accidents, and predators (principally hyenas and cheetahs) can cull three to four out of every hundred animals on farms that raise small livestock, like sheep or goats.

De Haast said that in course of 15 years of farming, his only loss of livestock to cheetah predation were six sheep killed in a single day nearly a decade ago. However, de Haast, said he finds cheetah tracks on his land five or six times a year.

"While farming is not a real moneymaker, losses of livestock due to predators is quite an emotional and annoying thing for a farmer," he said. "It can easily drive him to put poison in a carcass to kill the predator."

De Haast admits it's difficult for farmers to change their attitudes and practices. When livestock is killed, it causes financial hardships. "I think that conservation bodies can do a lot to help change the attitude of farmers by providing compensation in case of losses," he said.

CCF does not offer such financial reimbursement. However, the organization is considering a program that would certify meat as "predator friendly." Designated meat would then be sold for a premium price, helping increase the farmer's bottom line.

Within the last few years, de Haast said he has noticed a "sharp increase" in the local cheetah population.

Marker said other farmers have too, and some of them are nervous. "We have more work to do," Marker concedes. "As farmers see more cheetahs, they think that they might have more problems. So we spend our time in a vicious circle of hand-holding and educating."

Meanwhile Marker looks to the future, saying she hopes younger generations will peacefully coexist with cheetahs through adaptive livestock- and wildlife-management practices.

Word about the Livestock Guarding Dog Program has spread. Researchers working to save wolves in United States, snow leopards in Nepal, jaguars in Brazil, and European lynx in Switzerland, have expressed interest in using Anatolians as a conservation tool, Marker said.

"This is an art along with a science," Marker said of saving the wild cheetah. "Today the future of the cheetah is in human hands."