Rehabilitating and releasing cheetahs 501
FIG. 2 Kaplan–Meier survivorship curves for all the released captive-reared cheetahs and comparisons for the variables social grouping, age when orphaned, captivity time and training–release.
TABLE 4 Annual Kaplan–Meier (KM) survivorship estimates with 95% confidence intervals of released captive-reared cheetahs. χ2 values, degrees of freedom and probability are reported for the log rank test comparing survivorship for different variables.
Variable Social grouping
Age when orphaned Captivity time Training
All individuals Treatment
Male in coalition (reserve) Female in coalition (reserve) Single female (reserve) Single female (farmland) ,6 months $ 6 months , 1,500 days $ 1,500 days No Yes
Annual KM survivorship (95% CI) 0.82 (0.62–1.00)
0.80 (0.52–1.00) 0.33 (0.07–1.00) 0.21 (0.04–1.00) 0.50 (0.23–1.00) 0.65 (0.47–0.90) 0.45 (0.21–0.96) 0.71 (0.52–0.96) 0.55 (0.36–0.84) 0.75 (0.50–1.00) 0.61 (0.45–0.84)
χ2 6.5
0.5 0 1
df 3
1 1 1
P 0.1
0.5 1
0.3
Although our results did not show significantly higher
FIG. 3 Three-month interval Kaplan–Meier survival analysis for released cheetahs. Error bars show 95% CI of the Kaplan–Meier estimate.
based upon past findings and our experience with CM4. CM4 only established themselves after a soft release follow- ing a hard release that failed because of extensive explora- tory roaming.
survival for releases into reserves, reserves generally exclude the risk of conflict with humans. Additionally, farmland re- stricted the capacity of our team to monitor and assist re- leased cheetahs. If a cheetah crossed a farm border onto a property where we failed to obtain permission for monitor- ing, that individual ceased to be monitored until it moved onto a property where it could be monitored. Our inability to closely monitor some released cheetahs moving across property borders perhaps influenced survival probability, as we were unable to provide these individuals with as much support (e.g. supplemental feeding, veterinary assis- tance) as individuals released into a reserve, where monitor- ing ability is more secure. The annual survival estimate obtained for cheetahs re-
leased into large or fenced reserveswas similar to the annual survival estimate of 0.85 for cheetahs translocated into fenced reserves in South Africa (Marnewick et al., 2009). Buk et al. (2018) found predators to be responsible for
Oryx, 2022, 56(4), 495–504 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605321000235
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