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African Air Base Loses Cheetah "Watchdog" |
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Leon Marshall in Johannesburg for National Geographic News |
| August 20, 2003 |
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South African Air Force fighter pilots, and many a civilian aviator, too, would have been saddened by the recent death of Mpho, the cheetah. They would also have been grateful to the fleet-footed predator for nearly a decade of service patrolling a remote air base, chasing warthogs and other small game off the runways in one of the wilder parts of South Africa. Mpho, meaning "gift" in the indigenous seSotho language, was stationed at Hoedspruit Air Base in the northeast of South Africa, near the Kruger National Park, a region still teeming with wild animals even outside the park's fences. In the days of apartheid and southern Africa's anti-colonial wars Hoedspruit served as an advance air base at which Mirage jet fighters were stationed. After South Africa's political settlement in the early nineties, it started doubling as a civilian airport called Eastgate, resulting in passenger jets calling. From the outset, warthogs were a frequent menace on the runways. But smaller antelope like impala were also a hazard to the aircraft. Animals wandering onto the runway while aircraft were landing or taking off could easily cause a disaster. The air base is on a 4,900-acre (2,000-hectare) piece of land which, apart from landing strips and small buildings, remains wild bush country. It also has substantial numbers of game inside its fence. And making the problem worse is the preference of grazers like warthogs and impala for the short, mowed grass next to the runways, from where they can all too easily dart into the path of speeding aircraft. Major Philip Oosthuizen, head of the base's environmental services, says the airport administration first tried to shoot the game. But this made the problem worse: "It proved impossible to exterminate them. The warthog simply hid in holes and the antelope in the bush where they kept breeding, and more kept coming into the base area through holes the warthog dug under the periphery fence. "Rather than driving them off, the shooting succeeded only in scattering them and leaving those remaining skittish and even less manageable. "When left alone, the warthog move about in groups and the impala in herds. This makes them easy to spot and to be driven away from the danger areas. With the hunting, they scattered and started dashing singly over the runways. It just made it all so much more dangerous," says Oosthuizen. It was then that he came up with the idea of resorting to nature's way, by introducing cheetahs to keep the small-game numbers down without scattering the groupings in which they move about. Capable of reaching speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour (97 to 113 kilometers per hour), the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is the fastest of the land mammals. The big cat typically preys on smaller antelope, warthogs, hares, and game birds—the very animals that range freely on the Hoedspruit property. Oosthuizen first introduced a pair of female cheetahs to the air base—but this presented an unexpected new hazard. Unlike the males, which move about in bachelor groups of two or three and who like to hunt together, female cheetahs move about and hunt singly. The trouble is that they are then unable to eat their whole catch by themselves, and the remains entice vultures, which are an even bigger threat to aircraft. In 1994, they were replaced with two males: Mpho and Mphonyane, the latter meaning "small gift." It was decided not to have females join them, says Oosthuizen, because this could set them fighting. And their purpose was not to breed but to keep the warthogs and impala in check. Mphonyane drowned some years later when he fell into an air-base swimming pool, possibly while chasing after a warthog. He was replaced with a new young cheetah male called Kleintjie (the Afrikaans word for "small one"). Mpho went on to reach the ripe old age of 14 years, considered extraordinary for a cheetah. He was about to be retired earlier this year to the cheetah breeding facility at the nearby Kapama private game reserve to spend his last days in protective comfort when he went missing. Air Force personnel were concerned. They had a few days earlier noticed that he had separated from his younger hunting partner. They also once saw him driven off his warthog kill by baboons, a sure sign that he was weakening. His radio collar was out of order, and by the time he was found he was so weak that local veterinarian Peter Rogers considered it better to put him down. He had baboon-bite marks, but the main cause of his weak condition proved to be kidney failure. Rogers says cheetahs' high-protein diet tend eventually to cause this, though in the wilds they normally do not live long enough for it to become a problem. From about eight years they start weakening and often starve, or get killed by bigger predators, like lion. Meanwhile the job of keeping the runways safe has to carry on. It means the remaining cheetah, Kleintjie, has to be joined by some new colleagues to do the job. In early August, two young males were brought from a breeding station and placed in an enclosure next to another in which Kleintjie has been put. Major Oosthuizen says the idea is to allow a bonding process to develop before putting them together, and then setting them free to start their air-base patrol. Leon Marshall is an environmental journalist who contributes regularly to National Geographic News. See links at the bottom of this page to more of his stories. Nationalgeographic.com Resources on Big Cats News Stories: Lions Vs. Farmers: Peace Possible? Has Rare Lion of Africa's Cape Eluded Extinction? Female Lions Are Democratic in Breeding, Study Finds Man-Eating Lions Not Aberrant, Experts Say Filmmakers Use High-Tech Gear to Stalk Lions Cougar Reports on the Rise in Eastern U.S. Rare Leopard Behavior Documented on Film Killer Cat Hunted Human Ancestors Uday Hussein's Lions May Be Freed in African Wilds Baghdad Zoo Animals to Get Help From U.S. Zoos Conditions Improving at Kabul Zoo Big Cats Kept as Pets Across U.S., Despite Risk Wild Tiger Populations Stabilizing, Groups Say Elusive Snow Leopard Seen in Rare Photos National Geographic Magazine Interactive Features (Galleries, video, audio, print excerpts) Kenya's Legendary Maneless Lions Shed Their Mystery Tracking the Leopard Phantom of the Night: Jaguars, Latin America's Supreme Predators Asia's Last Lions In Search of the Clouded Leopard Preying on Giants: Elephants and Lions Nationalgeographic.com Interactive features Creature Feature: Tigers Tiger Time Cyber Tiger Stories by South African Journalist Leon Marshall: Africa's Bushmen May Get Rich From Diet-Drug Secret Bushmen Driven From Ancestral Lands in Botswana In Africa, Hunters Pay to Tranquilize Game for Research Tiny Bugs Enlisted to Fight Invading Water Hyacinths Cross-Border Park Is Africa's Largest Wildlife Refuge Gamblers Fuel Trade in "Lucky" Vulture Heads in Africa Uday Hussein's Lions May Be Freed in African Wilds Poaching, Smuggling Threaten Abalone Colonies in South Africa South Africa Rethinks Use of Shark Nets South Africa Sardine Migration Draws Crowds "Killer Bee" Touted as Economic Lifesaver in S. Africa South Africa Takes Urgent Steps to Avert Fishery Collapse Fire Sparks Conservation Movement in South Africa Africa's New Safari Trend Is for the Birds South Africa Grooms for Sequel to 1992 Earth Summit in Rio Related stories: Falconry Used to Secure North American Airports Dolphins Deployed as Undersea Agents in Iraq Sharks Help Scientists Study Pacific Nuclear Test Site Bear Dogs on Patrol for Problem Grizzlies U.S. Beagle Brigade is First Defense Against Alien Species Dogs Called Up in War on Terrorism Related Sites: National Geographic Guide to Animals & Nature Air Force Base Hoedspruit Hoedspruit Research and Breeding Centre for Endangered Species Hoedspruit Endangered Species Foundation Hoedspruit Cheetah in 1993 Cheetah Conservation Fund |
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