Tracking data from nine free-roaming Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) collared in the Thabazimbi area, Limpopo Province, South Africa.
BACKGROUND
In partnership with the University of Pretoria, the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Carnivore Conservation Programme collared six male and three female free-roaming Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) in the Thabazimbi area in Limpopo Province, South Africa. This study was undertaken to determine the spatial ecology of free-roaming Cheetahs that occur outside of formal protected areas on private ranchland, where they frequently come into conflict with, and are sometimes killed by, private landowners. The data were collected between September 2003 and November 2008, resulting in a total of 3165 location points (65 points from VHF collars and 3100 from GPS collars) for nine individual Cheetahs.


CONCLUSIONS
This dataset provides distribution information about this Vulnerable species occurring outside of protected areas within South Africa. The dataset has been published to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.GBIF.org) and provides the largest dataset on Cheetahs thus far, and, although it is spatially limited to a relatively small region on the African continent, it is the first study of its kind within South Africa. Also of significance is that the fate of 6 of the 9 collared Cheetahs is known, all except one of which died of anthropogenic causes.
Endangered Wildlife Trust, Johannesburg, South Africa; Centre for Wildlife Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Kelly
K
Marnewick
Endangered Wildlife Trust, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Samantha
S
Page-Nicholson
Endangered Wildlife Trust, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Lizanne
L
Roxburgh
Centre for Wildlife Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Michael J
MJ
Somers
Satellite tracking; conservation; free-roaming Cheetah; outside of protected areas; spatial ecology