When the sun rose over the highveldt on 12 April 2007, the fastest predator in the natural world took on a predator from the sporting world in a race to save the wild cheetah from extinction.
Feared across the world for his blistering pace and ability to attack from anywhere on the pitch, international rugby star and Springbok winger Bryan Habana raced against a cheetah to launch the De Wildt Cheetah Tracker; a three year research programme to support cheetah conservation across South Africa.
Sponsoring the race, and the three year De Wildt Cheetah Tracker programme, is Sasol Chevron, a company at the forefront of the production and marketing of the cleanest, most powerful, low emissions diesel fuel in the world – GTL.   Critical to the success of the De Wildt Cheetah Tracker is mobility. The team will have to cover many hundreds of thousands of kilometres to get the work done and, to help them do this, Sasol Chevron has donated two M class Mercedes. These vehicles will run on GTL diesel donated by Sasol Chevron as part of a three year fuel test and this revolutionary clean fuel will allow De Wildt to do its work with the lowest possible vehicle emissions.

In South Africa, the free-roaming cheetah is under threat due to persecution and a reduced population size.  During 2000, as a reaction to the declining numbers of cheetah in the wild De Wildt spearheaded the formation of the National Cheetah Conservation Forum of South Africa (NCCF) which developed a national strategy and identified the need for a census.  The De Wildt Cheetah Tracker, sponsored by Sasol Chevron, will provide accurate scientific data by tracking cheetah numbers electronically and making ull use of technology such as camera traps.
Click here for more

The De Wildt Cheetah Tracker will cover many hundreds of thousands of kilometers.  This is one of the most equipment and cost intensive areas of the study which is why Sasol Chevron has stepped in to help.  Sasol Chevron has supplied two 'M' class Mercedes to transport the tracker teams.  These vehicles are unique in South Arica and use the very latest in European emissions abatement technology.
Click here for more

23 June 2008
Kelly's Diary
"This week the De Wildt/McKaynine scat sniffing team headed north to Makulu Makete and the captive release project. Diesel had a buddy in the form of Shannon’s whippetey-type cross breed Duzi. Shannon has been experimenting with training her dogs at home to sniff for scat. This is giving her loads if insight into the different methods that need to be used on different dogs and what makes a scat sniffing dog successful. It is hoped that in the future, De Wildt will have a team of scat sniffing dogs that can be used in the field. But for now, it is Diesel and his apprentice Duzi and what a successful week they had! Diesel found two scats belonging to Phoenix! It was hard work and we walked almost 20km, but so so rewarding when Diesel puts his nose up in the air, follows the scent and sits excitedly in front of a scat! All for a rubber ball as a reward!"
Click here for more

12 May 2008
Kelly's Diary
"Diesel was enlisted to try and help find a marking post where we could set a trap. Working on Ka’Ingo had its own set of challenges – mainly in the form of 4 lions! Luckily they are all collared and we had a ranger with us – who was (sometimes) armed. The big excitement happened on the last day, we were searching near an area called ‘Pride Rock’ .... walking up a rocky rise, Diesel suddenly started to go crazy indicating and sniffing around – he definitely had something!!! Then, beep beep, it was the lions, getting closer – much closer, and we were far from the car and unarmed with a ‘lion smartie’ (as Shannon called Diesel) on the end of a lead. Talk about being in a quandary, but we decided that our lives were more valuable than cheetah poop (yes, we did consider the options for a while!!!), then headed back to the car - disappointed at having to leave a possible find, but happy not to have to confront any hungry lions!!!!"
Click here for more

                            DEON                KELLY

DEON CILLIERS
Deon completed his National Diploma in Nature Conservation at the Pretoria Technicon (now TUT) and started his Conservation career as an Environmental Officer in the South African Airforce.     
click here for more
KELLY MARNEWICK
Kelly Marnewick did a BSc in Zoology and Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) then carried on to complete an MSc (Wildlife Management) at the University of Pretoria.
click here for more

Cheetahs are fitted with technologically advanced tracking collars which allow the cheetahs to be tracked remotely via the internet.  The collars are fitted with GSM and GPS units and once the cheetahs move into an area with GSM coverage, the collar automatically dials into a server and downloads all the recorded GPS localities.
click here for more

Click here to link to Sasol Chevron