Assessing cheetah reintroduction success 509


FIG. 2 First year post-release movements of female (CF) and male (CM) cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus reintroduced into Liwonde National Park (shaded area), Malawi, during 2017–2018, and the location of their release site (boma). Only the five individuals fitted with GPS collars are represented.


However, robust inference about such inter-sexual differ- ences is limited by the inherently small sample size of rein- troductions. Both males in our study settled and exhibited


TABLE 2 Fixed-effect β coefficients, associated standard errors (SE) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of a linear mixed model investigating factors affecting daily distance moved post-release of five cheetahs reintroduced into Liwonde National Park, Malawi, during 2017–2018. The model was fitted with individual identity as a random intercept. Coefficients for which the 95%CI does not overlap zero are deemed significant.


Variable Intercept


Sex (male)1


Age at translocation


Duration in boma


Days since release


β SE


Lower 95% CI


Upper 95% CI P


−0.008 0.003 −0.015 −0.002 −0.008 0.006 −0.020 0.003


2.564 0.293 1.990 3.137 ,0.001* 2.475 0.160 2.163 2.788 ,0.001* 0.01*


0.16 −0.005 0.001 −0.006 −0.004 ,0.001*


1Female was the reference category. *Variables with significant influence.


spatial strategies described in free-roaming populations (Melzheimer et al., 2018). CM2 was found to scent-mark often and had a limited, predictable range that overlapped with those of all females, indicating territoriality. In con- trast, CM1 travelled across a large area and displayed the occasional foray, which is probably representative of so- called male floating behaviour and subsequent displacement by a territorial male (CM2). Females exhibited similar levels of net squared displace-


ment pre- and post-denning, but their 11-day home range contracted post-denning, indicative of localized move- ments that progressively shifted. This also indicates that net squared displacement curves alone are not the best re- presentation of spatial or settlement behaviour for females with dependent cubs. Considering a gestation period of 90–95 days (Bissett & Bernard, 2011), all three females re- leased into Liwonde conceived within the first 2 months post-release. This time frame was similar to a female trans- located to Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa (Power et al., 2019), and sooner than for females translocated into protected areas in Namibia (.3 months; Weise et al., 2015a). Whereas CF1 and CF2 settled after conceiving, CF3 developed a home range prior to conceiving, suggesting


Oryx, 2022, 56(4), 505–513 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605321000788


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