Lilongwe Wildlife Trust (LWT), responsible for running Malawi’s only wildlife rehabilitation centre and a key campaigner in Malawi’s fight against wildlife crime, have reported news of cheetah cubs recently born spotted in Liwonde National Park.
These cubs represent the third generation of cheetahs to be born in Liwonde since the reintroduction in 2017 by African Parks in partnership with Endangered Wildlife Trust and DNPW Malawi. Their great-grandmother (CF2, originally from Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa) was one of the first cheetahs to be released into the park – she represented the first step in rebuilding the predator population after decades of decline.
Can you spot the cubs’ ‘mantles’ in the pictures above? There are several reasons cheetah cubs may have this long, silvery strip of fur running down their back. It might regulate their temperature, better disguise them in long grass or help them resemble honey badgers – a species with a ferocious reputation!
Lilongwe Wildlife Trust will continue to follow this young family as part of their work documenting cheetah breeding success, survival, population growth and predator interactions in Liwonde National Park.
Did you know you could get involved in this work? Lilongwe Wildlife Trust are offering volunteer programmes! To join their biodiversity monitoring team, check out our volunteer placements and see it for yourself in their video here
I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.
Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.