The story of the Darlington Male
By Vincent van der Merwe, EWT's Carnivore Conservation Programme, Cheetah Metapopulation
Coordinator
In George Orwell’s allegorical novel ‘Animal Farm’, Napoleon revised one of the seven
commandments. “All animals are equal” was promptly replaced with “All animals are equal, but
some are more equal than others”.
GraafReinet is the fourth oldest town in South Africa and is situated in the heart of the Great Karoo.
It is a boundless area covered by vast sheep and game farms, where broad plains roll away to distant
koppies and the multilayered Sneeuberg Mountains. These are the only mountains in Africa where
one can observe the world’s fastest land mammal in snow. Cheetah are more tolerant of cold
weather than one would think. In Samara Private Game Reserve Cheetah are known to compete for
higher lying grassland areas where it frequently snows in winter. It was in these grasslands that an
exceptional young Cheetah was born in October 2006.
He was one of two male cubs from his mother’s first litter. Ariaan had no vision in her left eye,
leaving it with a characteristic cloudy appearance. It is not known how she lost vision in that eye as
she was originally a free roaming Cheetah from the Waterberg. The Waterberg Mountains in
Limpopo are a special place for predators. This rugged and remote piece of nature has aided the
persistence of many free roaming predators. Not even the arrival of European settlers with their
sophisticated weaponry could eradicate predators from this area. Free roaming populations of
Cheetah, Leopard, Spotted Hyena and Wild Dog survive in these mountains to this day.
However, even the Waterberg is losing ground to an ever increasing and fast encroaching human
population. The lure of easy to catch goats and sheep proved too much for Ariaan. In 2001 she was
captured on a farm near Marken and moved to Samara Private Game Reserve in the GraafReinet
area of the Eastern Cape. The vast open shrubland of the Karoo would have been a very unfamiliar
environment for her. Despite having to deal with the inadequacies of monocular vision, she slowly
adapted to her new environment. It took her five years to successfully raise her first litter of cubs to
adulthood.
Unlike human young, Cheetah cubs develop very quickly and these two youngsters broke away from
Ariaan at 17 months of age. The formidable pair was quick to realise that the prime hunting grounds
on Samara were the high altitude grasslands. The sweet rooigras (Red Grass) of these grasslands
attracts large herds of Springbok, Blesbok, Eland, Kudu, Black Wildebeest, Mountain Zebra and
Hartebees. The only problem was, however, that this area was occupied by their father. Mozart was
reportedly a large and formidable male. He had presided over the prime Cheetah habitat on Samara
for many years. His age was however catching up to him and he had recently lost his coalition
partner, Beethoven. One day, in the long grass of the Sneeuberg Mountains, the young Darlington
male and his brother stumbled across their father. A fearsome brawl broke out. Outnumbered two
to one by his own offspring, Mozart stood little chance and was killed.
Unimpressed by the behaviour of the young coalition, reserve management decided that these
skittish young Cheetah with little tourism potential had to go. They threatened the survival of other
single Cheetah males on the reserve. These single males, like Mozart, were well habituated to
humans and provided good game viewing for visiting tourists. Fortunately Gondwana, a new Big Five
reserve near Mossel Bay, was willing to take in the young coalition. Permits were processed and the
Darlington Male and his brother arrived at Gondwana in September 2010. Cheetah relocated
between reserves are held in the recipient reserves boma for three months. This allows them to
become familiar with their new surroundings and, more importantly, ensures that the homing
instinct that Cheetah retain when moved is lost. This is also an opportunity for reserve management
to habituate skittish Cheetah like the Darlington Male to humans. This is achieved in a number of
ways. Game drive vehicles are left in close vicinity to the bomas. Vehicle radios are left on and the
bomas are frequently visited by rangers and reserve staff.
This move must have been a terrifying experience for the young coalition. Darted and shoved into a
tiny transport crate, driven for seven hours and dumped into a boma in a completely unfamiliar
environment. And the worst was still to come. Gondwana had recently acquired a pride of lion.
Quick to sniff out new predators, these lions were certain to visit the novice Cheetah on the night of
their arrival. The young coalition had never encountered lion before and it must have been a
frightening experience. Lion have an inherent detestation for other large predators. They are the
principle killers of Cheetah wherever the two species coexist, typically accounting for over 30% of
Cheetah mortalities. Weighing between 120 and 250 kilograms, adult lion are more than a match for
a flimsy Cheetah that average between 40 and 60 kilograms.
The Darlington Male was quick to realise that these lion meant business. One the very first night of
his arrival he escaped from his fully electrified boma. Reserve managers were shocked when they
arrived at the boma the next morning. Lion spoor marked the outskirts of this small fenced area and
only one Cheetah remained. In the corner of the boma there appeared what seemed to be a
warthog hole, carefully excavated under the fence. This hole was however the work of the
Darlington Male. Cheetah spoor emerged from the hole, trotting over the lion spoor and into the
greater reserve. Reserve management was quick to react. The remaining male was rapidly collared
and released in the hope that he would hook up with his fleeting brother. This tactic worked and one
week later the two males were seen together for the first time. The lion pride, however, had
unfinished business with the young Cheetah coalition. Three days after being observed together, the
brother of the Darlington Male was found dead. His neck was broken, his skull crushed and large
claw marks were observed on his body and collar.
This event obviously had a marked effect the Darlington Male and he had no plans to stick around.
He was quick to find a spot on the reserve that was free of lion. A small herd of wildebeest roamed a
60ha private housing estate that was fenced to keep predators and other dangerous game out. The
Darlington Male utilised his newly acquired fence hopping skills and broke into this estate. He was
spotted by residents and reserve management raced in to dart him. The plan was to have him
collared immediately and put back into the boma. The boma period would neutralise his homing
instinct and ensure that he became more habituated for game viewing. Management arrived too
late and he could not be immobilised. He was last seen at Gondwana on a Cape Grysbok kill in
October 2010. He was presumed dead, probably killed by lion as was the case with his brother.
Eleven months later the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) received a call from Addo Elephant
National Park. A Cheetah of unknown origin had reportedly moved right through the park and into a
farming area just north of the reserve known as Darlington. This Cheetah proceeded to kill 34 goats
in the Darlington area and was finally caught by a farmer in a gin trap. Fortunately the Cheetah
sustained minor wounds from this nasty device. Reserve management collected the Cheetah and put
him into one of their bomas. No free roaming Cheetah had been reported in the Eastern Cape since
1888 when a male coalition was shot just 30km north of Grahamstown. Addo management were
familiar with all their Cheetah and made it clear that this male did not belong to them. His origin was
a complete mystery. The EWT was quick to find a home for the newly dubbed ‘Darlington Male’.
Following a remarkable collaborative effort between sponsors (Clover Dairy Products), the Addo
Region Honorary Rangers, permitting officials, SANParks and the EWT the Darlington Male was
relocated to Monate Private Game Reserve in Limpopo. It was a heartening experience to witness
how rapidly a group of conservationists and concerned citizens could mobilise to assist a protected
species.
Apart from scaring off a few petrol attendants at a Bloemfontein petroport, the two day journey to
Limpopo took place without incident. The Endangered Wildlife Trust and Monate Private Game
Reserve have jointly been rewilding Cheetah for a number of years. Artificial bonding facilities had
recently been constructed on the reserve. A young, free roaming, male Cheetah that was caught
near Lephalale and held in Mokopane Zoo was sourced for bonding with the Darlington Male. Once
the two males were successfully bonded they would be released onto a suitable reserve. The
Darlington Male, however, had other plans. To-date, the extent of his fence hopping abilities was
unknown to the EWT. After spending just one week in the fully electrified Monateboma another
‘Warthog’ hole appeared. Once again Cheetah spoor emerged from this hole and Darlington Male
was nowhere to be seen. Despite Monate being fully stocked with a wide variety of suitable prey
species, he was seen wandering about on neighbouring cattle farms, running down Blesbok into the
fencelines of the numerous cattle camps. His preference for heavily fenced areas with low densities
of game was perplexing.
A concerted effort was made to catch this elusive male. Specially trained sniffer dogs were brought
in. Cage traps were set up in numerous locations. It slowly appeared that we were dealing with a
fence specialist, an escape artist of formidable calibre. It was going to take a special game capturer
to return this animal to the bonding facilities. Fortunately Monate were in possession of just such a
person. Roux du Toit, a former Grey College scholar, had the patience and skills required to do the
job. Roux had played first team rugby for Grey College with the likes of RuanPienaar, François Steyn
and Heinrich Brüssow. Roux however decided to hang up his rugby boots in exchange for his real
passion, a love for wildlife and a life in the bush. After running about on neighbouring farms for
three months the Darlington Male was finally captured in cage trap specially constructed around a
large Marula tree.
Before any further bonding was attempted the Darlington Male was collared so that he could be
tracked with difficulty should he once again escape. Whilst he was being collared we grabbed the
opportunity to search for a microchip. If present, a microchip would finally establish his origin. The
attending veterinarian pulled out his scanner and it bleeped as a chip was picked up on the back of
his neck. I entered the chip number into the search function of my computer as the vet read it out.
The results column indicated one match, Gondwana Cheetah. There are nine Cheetah reserves in
close vicinity to the Darlington area and Gondwana is certainly not one of them. I thought I may have
entered the chip number incorrectly and asked the vet to read it out a second time, 4B626D7E5B.
Once again I got ‘Gondwana Cheetah’. Impossible I thought to myself. I immediately went onto
Google maps and calculated the distance between Gondwana and Darlington. The two areas are 480
kilometres apart as the crow flies. There are large mountain ranges, numerous commercial farms
and road networks between Gondwana and Darlington. Slowly the entire story began to unravel.
The chip number matched perfectly with the male that had disappeared from Gondwana in October
2010. The remarkable manner in which the missing Gondwana male had escaped from his boma
matched the manner in which this male had escaped from the Monateboma. Finally the bizarre
preference of this male for highly fenced areas with low densities of game could be explained by all
the experience he had attained on his walkabout. He had walked across perhaps 150 commercial
farms between Gondwana and Darlington from the period October 2010 to September 2011. He had
a remarkable ability to move through fencing and could adapt easily to living in an array of habitats.
It must have been an extraordinary journey. We will never know which route he took. No reports of
a free roaming Cheetah were received during that period. It is however likely that he avoided heavily
forested areas and the more developed Garden Route coastline. He probably proceeded north over
the Outeniqua mountains through the Karoo until he hit more favourable thicket vegetation in the
Eastern Cape. All along the way he would most likely have survived by feeding on domestic animals.
Goats and sheep would have been fairly plentiful in these areas. The deaths of domestic animals
could’ve been blamed on Leopard which do occur at low densities in these areas. Since he escaped
from his boma on the first night of his arrival at Gondwana, he would have retained his homing
instinct. He was roughly walking in the direction of Samara Private Game Reserve from where he
originated.
And so the origin of the Darlington Male was finally established. Artificial bonding with the younger
and smaller Poties male finally commenced. Whilst the Darlington Male took fairly well to his new
buddy, the “Potties male” was highly temperamental. He continuously tried to attack the Darlington
Male whilst feeding, only to be smacked into submission on each occasion. There would be periods
where they would lie down next to each other however they never fed together on the same
carcass. This was taken as a sign that the bonding procedure had failed. It was decided that
Dinokeng Private Game Reserve would be the most suitable release site for the Darlington Male.
Dinokeng is Gauteng’s first Big Five reserve. It is very well fenced due to its proximity to densely
populated human settlements. A female was also sourced for Dinokeng as it was thought that her
presence would prevent him from once again escaping reserve boundaries.
The Darlington Male was moved from Monate to Dinokeng in September 2012. Living up to his
reputation he immediately escaped from his boma. Within two days of his escape he had killed an
adult Blesbok and a young Blue Wildebeest. The Darlington Male had lived and travelled in four of
South Africa’s provinces. There was concern that he wanted to see the remaining five. It was hoped
that he would finally settle and spend the rest of his days at Dinokeng, contributing some of his fine
genetics to the South African Cheetah Metapopulation. By August 2013 the Darlington Male had
escaped twice from Dinokeng Private Game Reserve. On each occasion he was located through his
satellite collar, darted via helicopter and returned to the reserve.
In September 2013 the Endangered Wildlife Trust got a call from Dinokeng management. The
Darlington Male had fathered four young cubs. His legacy lives on. Shortly after fathering this litter
he was killed in unfortunate circumstances after he escaped from the reserve for the 7th time.
Fortunately his genetics have been preserved in his offspring who continue to contribute to Cheetah
conservation efforts in South Africa.
The Cheetah Metapopulation Project is a collaborative project between all Cheetah reserves in
South Africa and is coordinated by EWT. The project is funded by National Geographic, St Louis Zoo,
Columbus Zoo, Scoville Zoo and generous bequests.
Samara
Darlington Male
Capture Set Up