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510 O. Sievert et al.


that pregnancy may not influence settlement behaviour in all females.


Habitat and competition


FIG. 3 Home range areas derived from progressive 11-day 100% minimum convex polygons for the first year post-release of female (CF) and male (CM) cheetahs reintroduced to Liwonde National Park, Malawi, during 2017–2018. Shaded bands indicate the known denning periods for females. Dashed line indicates time of settlement for each individual. Note different scale of y-axes between individuals.


In Liwonde, external factors, rather than pre-release man- agement, probably influenced post-release movements and ultimately reintroduction success. Habitat heterogene- ity limits kleptoparasitism, enables flexibility in hunting strategies and favours adult and cub survival (Durant, 1998; Rostro-Garcia et al., 2015; Gigliotti et al., 2020a). Translocated cheetahs exhibit wide ranging post-release movements in search of familiar or more suitable habitat conditions (Weise et al., 2015a). Liwonde’s mixed habitat structure, low density of competitors and abundant prey base provided suitable habitat, including den sites, and probably reduced post-release exploration and positively in- fluenced breeding and settlement for females. Considering the distance of dens to the release site (2.2 ± SD 0.5 km), presence of suitable habitat near the release site probably in- fluenced post-release exploration and time to reproduction for females. Rapid breeding post-release further indicates the influence of suitable environmental conditions on female settlement (Weise et al., 2015a). Conversely, males displayed extensive post-release


movements. Male cheetahs exhibit two forms of spatial behavioural patterns: territoriality or floating (Melzheimer et al., 2018). It is possible that reintroduction initiated float- ing behaviour as released males investigated Liwonde for conspecifics, only switching to territorial behaviour and settlement when no resident territory holders were found. Males approached the perimeter fence on numerous occa- sions during post-release exploration. The fence probably reduced the area available for post-release exploration, which may have influenced time to settlement. In open sys- tems, it has been suggested that males should be released first to prevent extensive exploration, and females should remain in a holding boma as a so-called anchor (Boast et al., 2018). However, our findings suggest that post-release movements and reintroduction success of male cheetahs were strongly influenced by natural and physical barriers of the Park, as well as the lack of resident territorial males.


Survival and mortality


FIG. 4 Net squared displacement curves for the first year post-release of female (CF) and male (CM) cheetahs reintroduced to Liwonde National Park, Malawi, during 2017– 2018. Shaded bands indicate the known denning periods for females. Y-axis is representative of the square of the Euclidean distance between each location and the known original location; therefore, a return to zero represents a return to the release site. Dashed line indicates time of settlement for each individual. Note different scale of y-axes between individuals.


Cheetahs generally exhibit lower survival rates during the first year post-release than other large African carnivores (Hayward et al., 2007a; Fontúrbel & Simonetti, 2011). Survival in Liwonde 1 year post-release was 80%, which is higher than the average for felid translocations (39 ± SE 6%; Fontúrbel&Simonetti, 2011), higher than in a population hard-released into unfenced protected areas inNamibia (67%; Weise et al., 2015a), and similar to releases in some South


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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