Kelly Wilson, a member of South Africa’s fencing team, is a nature conservationist with a passion for cheetahs who is on a double mission at the Athens Olympics.
While the lively, copper-haired athlete is sharpening up for sudden-death fencing action when competition starts on Saturday, she is closely monitoring the build-up to a court case involving the death of Norman, her favourite cheetah.
”Norman was very special to me because he was my first in a wild cheetah project that I’ve been working on for seven years,” said Wilson, who graduated from the University of Pretoria with a master’s degree in wildlife management.
”Norman was captured by a Thabazimbi farmer who shot him before I could get out to his farm to save him. What the farmer did was illegal and he’s been charged. I have to testify at the court case soon after I get back to South Africa.”
Wilson’s project headquarters are in the De Wildt area outside Britz.
”My speciality is a wild cheetah project involving the cats that are trying to survive outside of conservation areas,” she said at the Olympic village on Monday. ”We deal with the conflict between cheetahs and farmers and we’ve made great strides in educating farmers that these cats need not be treated as vermin and shot or poisoned.”
When cheetahs are spotted outside of conservation areas, Wilson and her team move in to capture the world’s fastest predator — ”they’ve been clocked at 120kph” — so that she can monitor their habits by means of radio collars and the setting up of cameras in the bush.
”They are very wily and in my seven years or working with them, I have only ever seen two on the ground. Norman, who was named after Norman Atherston on whose farm he was captured, was the first cheetah I collared, but the radio malfunctioned and I lost him for a long time.
”Then last Christmas we got word that he’d been trapped by a farmer, but before I could get to him, the farmer shot him. I was devastated.”
Wilson said that their method of capture is to use a pet goat, Judas, as bait.
”We place Judas in a safe cage and lure the cheetah into another cage by bunch-packing thorn bushes to give it only one access path,” she said.
”We’ve collared five cheetahs since Norman. Their names are George, Jos, Boesman, Isaac and Conrad. I just hope and pray that they don’t suffer the same fate as Norman.”
Then she brightened up.
”But look at this. I’m at the Games. I would never have dreamed this would be possible just four months ago. This is where my mind is right now. When I get home, I’ll wrap my mind around Norman’s court case.”
Wilson said that training is going well and that Germany are the favourites in the fencing. On Thursday, she and her teammates, Rachel Barlow and Natalia Tychler, will be on tenterhooks when the draw takes place. There are no qualifying rounds and competition is on a knockout basis.
”In this game there are no second chances,” she said. ”It’s sudden death.”
That suits a woman like Wilson. It’s a bit like being in the wild. — Sapa