Full story here

Ch

Wow, thanks Chris.
I didn't see that coming!
Some good news to come out of the Sahara is most welcome

Sam

in 08 on the way from Tamanraset to Djanet (via Tassili du Hogar) we have seen the cheetah footprints - our tuareg guide told us that they are quite rear ... but I haven't tought about that since I saw Chris's post.

Tomaz

Well nót news really since it was reported in February. :)

But very nice and surprising since noone knew they were there.
And that means there may be more of them.
Hopefully the extinct (in the wild) but once common scimitar-horned oryx will soon be re-introduced in the desert-
http://www.kathleenmariestudio.com/i...ara_sunset.jpg

Dear friends,

You may find plenty of info about cheetah, and other charismatic Saharan mammals here:
SCF - Sahara Conservation Fund


Cheers,
José

Just back from Immidir (400km north of Hoggar) and a couple of days out of Tadjemout our guide was rather perturbed to spot what he described as leopard [cheetah?] tracks, a 'very long' animal and one that can take down a camel as he vividly described.
That said, in his 60-odd years out there he'd never seen one, though we never saw jackals either, despite their plentiful tracks and 3am howlings.

A lot more water out there this year in certain places - at Tin Djerane (Day 8) a heron flew off from a grassy guelta. Not sure i've seen them out there before.

Ch

In 2004 in the Hoggar we came across a herd of 20 or so goats with their throats ripped out - not normal behaviour for a cheetah - it looked like a wild, frenzied attack and I have always wondered what did it.

Normally it’s easy to spot if the footprint belongs to a Cheetah or Leopard.
The tracks of a leopard look pretty similar to a lion (or most other cats) but the cheetah has a more “advanced” footprint.

I have seen tracks of Cheetah and also heard them in Chad but not closer to Algeria. In northern Sudan I found some tracks that I think were from a big cat but they where in poor shape.

Wildlife and Desrt Travel
 

Next year i will be retiring from full time work,moving to Spain and doing what I love best.....overland travel.

This news reinvigourates my determination to travel in the Sahara.

Some years ago I was a peripheral member of a group of committed people who were instrumental in getting the status of the Arabian Leopard recognized in the UAE.OK its thinking with the heart but this is the sort of thing that puts us all closer to the planet and nature at its rawest and best.

My hats off to the scientists and travellers alike...........bring it on!

Another cheetah
 

Cheetah watch
 

More possible cheetah action - this time from Jabbaren up on the Tassili plateau southeast of Djanet last Friday.
These caught our guide's eye over the more common but smaller jackal tracks - he reckoned they were 'today'.

Other less common animals actually spotted on the plateau included 'marmots' (never seen them in Alg only Mori), plus a hare or two.

Ch

Chris,

Can you email me a better resolution photo. I know of someone who can positively identify the tracks, and will be delighted if indeed they turn out to be cheetah.

Edit: the large tracks on the right are indeed cheetah :)

Fancy that - thanks for finding out. Would be great to see it one day.

The morning before at Alandimen (or something like) guelta a few km north the hobbled donkeys took a lot of tracking down. Maybe the cheetah spooked them, although we did hear what sounded like a jackal that night.

I'm told the 'marmots' we saw are actually called rock hyrax.

Ch

I have seen hyrax on most of the ascents we have made in the Tafilalet. Usually they scurry away when they hear visitors coming, but this pair we saw in 2011 obediently posed for the cameras.

http://www.fjexpeditions.com/expedit...li11/P2698.jpg

How fascinating! These rock hyrax are the closest living genetic relatives to elephants and also find them on Table Mountain, Cape Town (ZA) and surrounds.

But I don't think anyone has seen cheetah on Table Mountain recently... You still do get some in the mountains an hour or two east and not far inland.

Cheetah between Djanet and Erg Tihodaine
 

two years ago we made camp in a beautyful place between Djanet and Erg Tihodaine.
Later I saw this footprints crossing the camp
http://up.picr.de/13243211is.jpg

cheetah in algeria (Gepard)
 

Interesting! Truly a case of "little and large".
Great photos ladies and gentlemen.

It's good new that they are still about, the Saharan Cheetah that is, but I do wonder if they truly are a sub-species or ones from the south moving North due to the pressures of man and the lack of range available to them..Life has a habit of finding a way if it possibly can..despite what humans arrogantly think..I am pleased to say.

Don't know the answer to that but it's hard to think they would have crossed 100s of km the desert northwards from the Aïr mountains in Niger (the mostly likely nearest southern habitat) to somewhere as comparatively lean as the Immidir or Tassili.

According to this - link in an earlier post - the Saharan cheetah (from Termit - SE of Aïr) 'is very rare, and one of the most specialized and threatened in Africa.'
And Jose Brito's link has more detail along the same lines.

Ch

Bit off topic, but it is so refreshing to finally see a thread on why we are going to the Sahara in the first place after all those on kidnappings, security and the like... :palm::)

Thanks for the picture of the prints.
I personnaly have a video of cheetah killed in the Hoggar from a friend touareg.

Hoggar cheetahs in the movies
 

I found these stills from old French (1932, 1921) films based on a popular novel L’Atlantide. Most recently remade in 1992, it's a Saharan take on Rider Haggard's She.
Somewhere in the Hoggar Antinea, a man-eating Tuareg queen, abducts two French officers for her incomplete ‘harem’. A cheetah seems to feature as a regular prop.

Ch

Sahara doc on BBC iplayer
 

BBC iPlayer - Africa: Sahara

Attenborough but no cheetahs

Cheat ! That's a Leopard and it's Namibia...
Absolutely lovely photo though :)

Hehe - - you got me :)