Even though these communication hubs only comprise around 10 percent of the landscape, cheetahs spend most―sometimes all―of their time within them.“This is basically a long-term tradition, which is passed on from cheetah generation to cheetah generation.Some of these communication hubs are basically known―or let’s say the marking locations―the marking trees were known by the farmers for 60, 70 years.The grandfather of the current farmer already knew the marking trees in this area.”What the farmers never realized is that only some farms overlap with the cheetahs’ communication hubs.Melzheimer thought that if those farmers relocated their most vulnerable herds, it could be a huge help.He remembers the first farmer he tried to convince.“I told him, ‘Look, Wilfred, I have the idea that they are actually there because of these marking trees.And you happen to have your small calves exactly in the same area.Let’s try to move your herds out of this area and keep them somewhere else.And then let’s measure the losses.’And he was laughing at me.He said, ‘Nice idea, but I’m not sure whether this is going to work. They will probably follow the calves.’So we tried this, and it actually worked.And he earned much more money because he lost less calves.”After that, 35 more farmers agreed to try it out.In all, the number of calves lost to cheetah predation fell by a whopping 86 percent.
