Action for Cheetahs – Kenya Full Time Team

Mary Wykstra-Ross, MEM., Principal Investigator and ACK Director

Since 2009, Mary is the Director of Action for Cheetahs in Kenya (ACK), and was the Kenya Director for Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) from 2001 to 2008. She has expe­ri­ence in both Kenya and in Namibia with data col­lec­tion, chee­tah research tech­niques, cap­ture and immo­bi­liza­tion, com­mu­nity devel­op­ment and edu­ca­tion. Mary com­pleted a Master’s of Environmental Management degree at Yale University in 2011. Mary’s autho­riza­tion is through the Kenya Ministry of Science and Technology in affil­i­a­tion with the Kenya Wildlife Service and CCF. Mary works within the com­mu­ni­ties to ini­ti­ate pro­grams in research, com­mu­nity devel­op­ment and edu­ca­tion. Mary coor­di­nates all research and com­mu­nity devel­op­ment activ­i­ties related to chee­tah con­ser­va­tion research, she is the liai­son to ACK part­ners and man­ages the admin­is­tra­tive side of ACK.

Cosmas Wambua, M.Sc., ACK Senior Research Scientist

Cosmas was hired by CCF as a research sci­en­tist in Kenya in 2002 and con­tin­ues as the Senior Research Scientist for ACK. His expe­ri­ence in eco­log­i­cal mon­i­tor­ing began in KWS in 2001 after com­ple­tion of his Bachelor of Science from Dr. B. R. Amdedkar University (Agra) in India. He stud­ied wildlife den­sity, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and abun­dance in the Salama region and earned a M.Sc. degree from Addis Abba University in Ethiopia in 2008. He is pro­fi­cient at mon­i­tor­ing tech­niques and map­ping results with ArcGIS. Cosmas main­tains the ACK data base, devel­ops research meth­ods and super­vises the staff and stu­dents to assure con­sis­tency in data col­lec­tion for com­par­a­tive analysis.

STUDENTS AND VOLUNTEERS

Erica Hermsen, M.Sc., ACK Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator

Erica first joined ACK as an intern in 2011, then returned in 2012 to com­plete her MS the­sis. She con­ducted a cam­era trap sur­vey using bait sta­tions to eval­u­ate the effec­tive­ness of dif­fer­ent scents, sounds, and mov­ing objects at lur­ing chee­tahs for trap­ping and radio col­lar­ing. In addi­tion to her Master of Science degree in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England, she has a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Western Washington University. Erica is most pas­sion­ate about con­nect­ing peo­ple to in-situ con­ser­va­tion efforts through edu­ca­tion and out­reach. She cur­rently works as an envi­ron­men­tal con­sul­tant with CB&I.

Deanna Russell vol­un­teered with ACK in 2012 and assisted with Erica’s camera-trapping research and Morgan’s fecal col­lec­tion work. Deanna stud­ied Wildlife and Fisheries Science at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry where she worked on sev­eral research projects includ­ing a camera-trap sur­vey of sea birds. She will return to work with ACK as the lead research assis­tant in Morgan’s the fecal col­lec­tion effort, using a spe­cially trained snif­fer dog to detect chee­tah scat. Deanna hopes to work as a wildlife biol­o­gist and work with chee­tahs and other carnivores.

ADVISORS AND CONSULTANTS

Adrienne Crosier is a Cheetah Biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute Center for Species Survival. She will be directly super­vis­ing Morgan and will advise Nelson. She is also work­ing with Erica for pilot test­ing of cam­era trap stud­ies. Dr. Crosier received a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biotechnology from North Carolina State University in 2001. Dr. Crosier is a Cheetah Biologist spe­cial­iz­ing in chee­tah repro­duc­tion and health at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). Dr. Crosier has over 9 years expe­ri­ence in chee­tah repro­duc­tive biol­ogy and has per­formed over 600 semen col­lec­tion pro­ce­dures on felids. Dr. Crosier has also led the SCBI research team con­duct­ing inter­na­tional stud­ies on chee­tah oocyte qual­ity and endocrinol­ogy since 2005. She is an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at George Mason University. She will be advis­ing on the col­lec­tion and analy­sis of fae­cal sam­ples for prey and hor­mone analy­sis, and the aca­d­e­mic advi­sor for stu­dent col­lab­o­ra­tion in chee­tah health stud­ies in Kenya.

We also have the sup­port of the Cheetah Conservation fund in this project …

Anne Schmidt-Kuentzel, DVM, PhD is the Assistant Director for Animal Health and Research head­ing the Applied Biosystems Genetic Conservation Laboratory for Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. CCF Director, Dr. Laurie Marker, has offered con­sul­tancy through the exper­tise of CCF in any aspect that we need. Anne joined CCF in 2008 to con­duct genetic research on Cheetahs in Namibia, rather than to have to export sam­ples to lab­o­ra­to­ries in the USA or Europe with a large part of the research focused on non-invasive sam­ples (scat). From 2002 to 2008 Anne worked in Dr. Stephen O’Brien’s Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institute, where she obtained a PhD in Genetics through The George Washington University in 2007. In 2000 she grad­u­ated from the vet­eri­nary school at Liège University in Belgium.

At Kenya Wildlife Service …

Dr. Kariuki will be our con­nec­tion in the vet­eri­nary depart­ment. It is our aim to work with SCBI and CCF to cal­i­brate and set up both the fecal and DNA analy­sis in Kenya to build capac­ity in KWS and Kenya and to avoid the need for export­ing sam­ples out of Kenya (reg­u­la­tions are extremely rigid!).

AFFILIATES

Elena Chelysheva is Russian zool­o­gist with broad knowl­edge of cap­tive and wild
chee­tah ecol­ogy and behav­ior and over 25 years of expe­ri­ence. Former super­vi­sor of Carnivore Department of Moscow Zoo Conservation Center (Russia) she worked with in dif­fer­ent insti­tu­tions includ­ing: Moscow zoo (Russia), pri­vate zoo (UAE), Gilman Foundation White Oak Conservation Centre (USA). In 1999 – 2000 she was full-time vol­un­teer at Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. In 2001 – 2002, she worked with the KWS Masai Mara Cheetah Project in Masai-Mara National Reserve (Kenya) to develop an orig­i­nal method of chee­tah identification.

In 2008 Elena obtained her PhD from Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University after com­plet­ing the­sis on chee­tah con­ser­va­tion and social behav­ior of cap­tive chee­tahs and impli­ca­tions of social struc­ture of wild chee­tahs. In 2012, she will head the Kenya “Meru-Mara Cheetah Project” aims to eval­u­ate Cheetah pop­u­la­tion sta­tus in regions with dif­fer­ent types of anthro­pogenic influ­ence (Masai Mara National Reserve ver­sus Meru Conservation Area). Elena will work with other car­ni­vore pro­grammes in the two regions to iden­tify chee­tahs and con­duct sur­vey of social structure.

Dale Anderson is the direc­tor of Cat Haven and Project Survival. For more that 25 years Dale has main­tained a facil­ity in the US where exotic cats are used as ambas­sadors to their wild coun­ter­parts. Cat Haven is open to the pub­lic and brings cats to schools and pub­lic func­tions to raise aware­ness and funds for car­ni­vore con­ser­va­tion. Cat Haven has suc­cess­fully bred and nur­tured a vari­ety of species. In 2010, Dale received autho­riza­tion to estab­lish a chee­tah sanc­tu­ary on the Soysambu Conservancy in Nakuru where chee­tahs from KWS can be housed and used as ambas­sadors for tourists and Kenyans to bet­ter under­stand the plight of chee­tahs in Kenya and the rela­tion­ship of Kenya’s chee­tahs to the future sur­vival of chee­tahs it Eastern Africa.

Dr. Laurie Marker is Founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) with its head­quar­ters in Namibia, Africa. Having worked with chee­tahs since 1974, Laurie set up the not-for-profit Fund in 1990 and moved to Namibia to develop a per­ma­nent Conservation Research Centre for the wild chee­tah. She com­pleted her PhD in 2001 through Oxford University and has received a host of awards for her com­mit­ment and exper­tise in chee­tah con­ser­va­tion efforts through the research and com­mu­nity activ­i­ties of CCF.

VOLUNTEERS

Cindy Wheeler has offered her ser­vices as a web designer to sup­port our efforts at Action for Cheetahs in Kenya. After spend­ing many years as a graphic designer, she has, most recently, added web design to her list of ser­vices after attend­ing The Art Institute of CA’s Web Design & Interactive Media pro­gram. Her work with ACK is sup­ported through Project Survival. In 2006 – 2007 she worked as a vol­un­teer in South Africa with the chee­tah ambas­sador train­ing pro­gram at Cheetah Outreach.

Dr. Mohsin Likoniwalla. In 2010, we sought some assis­tance in radio col­lar­ing. It hap­pened on more than one occa­sion that we sched­uled our field work for col­lar­ing with the KWS vet­eri­nary depart­ment, but in the mid­dle of the exer­cise there is a wildlife emer­gency requir­ing the vet­eri­nar­ian assist­ing us to be called away. The KWS vet­eri­nary staff is small with huge respon­si­bil­i­ties, and are the super­vi­sors of our radio col­lar­ing exer­cises. Since time and resources go into each col­lar­ing attempt it is not con­ve­nient to change our plans. Dr Mohsin agreed to be a back-up. He com­pleted his DVM in 1993 after which he went into pri­vate prac­tice. He has been a vet­eri­nar­ian with the Colobus Trust 1995 – 2008 dart­ing and treat­ing injured pri­mates, and also had wildlife med­ical expe­ri­ence in Shimba Hills Reserve and Mwaluganje. He has been in pri­vate prac­tice for the since 1995 with The Andy’s Veterinary Clinics in Nairobi and Mombasa. In 2010, he accom­pa­nied KWS vet­eri­nary staff on var­i­ous field exer­cises to enable their endorse­ment for his assis­tance not only with chee­tah work, but also as a backup vet­eri­nar­ian for other wildlife emergencies.

Phone: +254 (0)7339976910 or +254 (0)721631664