Draft:The Metapopulation Initiative (The Cheetah Metapopulation Project)

The Cheetah Metapopulation Project (CMP) was established in 2011 to ensure the genetic and demographic integrity of the cheetah metapopulation by coordinating translocations between protected areas (PA) and increasing resident range through reintroductions into the species’ historical distribution.

Metapopulation Management
In Africa, the socioeconomic development of the past 30 years has resulted in significant habitat loss and fragmentation.. . Many of its large mammal populations have declined over the same period, including the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). Often naturally occuring at low densitities, large mammals are vulnerable to habitat fragmentation. Habitat protection through a network of designated PAs remains a dominant strategy for future biodiversity conservation. Protected areas can host subpopulations that persist in a metapopulation, where the movement of individuals between subpopulations can halt or potentially reverse local extinction otherwise resulting from stochastic or random processes (sink–source dynamics). The African PA network has the potential to conserve metapopulations; however, its effectiveness depends on maintaining connectivity between subpopulations.

According to the extent to which Africa is predicted to experience a loss of suitable habitat for most species by 2050, its landscape will likely become progressively fragmented. One effect of this process is the isolation of PAs, which may disrupt connectivity and increase species’ risk of extinction. Where connectivity cannot be restored, conservation translocations and metapopulation management can alleviate the effects of fragmentation. In a managed metapopulation, natural dispersal is substituted or supplemented by human-mediated movement of selected individuals between remnant fragments of suitable habitat. Metapopulation management enhances dispersal success, demographic rescue effects, and genetic diversity to maintain long-term population viability of low-density species inhabiting small fragments. Examples of such managed metapopulations include black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) in Southern and East Africa and African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in South Africa

Cheetah Reintroductions in South Africa and the Metapopulation
A cheetah metapopulation management strategy for Southern Africa was implemented in 2009, 15 years after its initial proposal. However, cheetah reintroductions were largely uncoordinated and opportunistic before establishing the CMP. Between 1965 and 1998, for instance, 188 ‘problem’ cheetahs from Namibia were reintroduced into nine South African reserves. Cheetahs persisted in only two, with surplus animals from one reserve translocated to 17 additional metapopulation reserves. The low success rate of these earlier reintroductions was attributed to inadequate fencing, reduced prey populations, and high densities of competing predators in many reserves. By 1998, new regulations in Namibia prohibited further cheetah reintroductions into South Africa. The National Cheetah Conservation Forum incentivised commercial farmers to live-capture cheetahs caught killing livestock on their properties between 1999 and 2009 to reduce cheetah-farmer conflict. However, this scheme was discontinued as free-roaming cheetahs of high conservation value were excessively harvested. By 2012, the 345 cheetahs translocated to establish a metapopulation had decreased to 217 after supplementation from free-roaming populations halted. This number doubled after the transition from managing independent cheetah populations to a coordinated metapopulation

By coordinating cheetah translocations between participating reserves, The Metapopulation Initiative helps private and state wildlife custodians manage inbreeding, overpopulation, and local extinction on their lands while identifying new areas of suitable cheetah habitat for reintroduction. As of 2017, metapopulation management of wild cheetahs had enabled the re-establishment of a viable population comprising >460 cheetahs on 63 fenced reserves distributed as five geographic clusters across South Africa. The project has since expanded from South Africa to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and India.