The sale of the last piece of the Namibian property was part of plans to secure both the land for cheetah conservation and the Hilkers’ legacy, Carl Hilker said last week.
“We’re just happy,” said Hilker, 80. “It’s time to let go.”
Earlier this year, people rallying against eradication of a beaver living in a lake at Mason’s Pine Hill Lake Park enlisted Hilker in hopes of also winning support from his wife, who created the Cat Ambassador Program at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.
“They call her the Cat Lady,” Tom Walker of Mason said. “I thought maybe she could convince the zoo to put it (the beaver) on their wetland.”
Ohio law prohibits such a relocation, and Mason continues to work for a solution.
Cheetah conservation
For decades, the Hilkers, who live near the Butler-Warren county line, were central characters in cheetah conservation.
Since the 1980s, Cathryn Hilker promoted the welfare of captive and wild cheetahs, as well as other big cats.
She gained recognition by taking big cats, including a cheetah named Angel, to events around the region and the world, and established the Angel Fund to support cheetah conservation.
“She was clairvoyant with animals,” Carl Hilker said. “She could take wild animals out in public.”
Cathryn Hilker is now 83.
In 1989, at an event in Cincinnati, she met Laurie Marker, founder of CCF, beginning a relationship that led to collaborations on cheetah conservation and the establishment and expansion of the nonprofit’s holdings.
“Cathryn is the icon of the Cincinnati Zoo,” Marker said in a phone call from Indianapolis.
Carl Hilker said he flew to Africa in 1994 with the down payment for the Cheetah Conservation Fund’s first land and current headquarters in Otjiwarongo, Namibia. He later purchased the larger farm, which he sold last year to the World Wildlife fund Namibia for CCF.
“We now had the whole place locked up,” he said.
Today these lands comprise about a quarter of the 100,000 acres now held by CCF, Marker said.
In 2000, CCF dedicated an education center at the field headquarters in the Hilkers’ names. Among those on hand was Namibian President Sam Nujoma.
That same year, Nujoma gave 10 orphaned cheetahs being held at CCF’s sanctuary to the U.S., four of which then helped start the Cincinnati Zoo’s breeding center in Clermont County. The zoo plans to move this facility to Warren County this year.
From its start in a borrowed farmhouse, the CCF has developed a global reach, one Marker is currently working to expand with a speaking tour also celebrating the organization’s 25th anniversary in July.
In addition to worldwide public relations, CCF focuses on minimizing conflicts between cheetahs and humans. It also conducts research and collaborates with other conservation groups in Zimbabwe, Iran and other countries and trains Namibians in farming techniques.
Cheetahs are Africa’s most endangered big cats, with an estimated 10,000 remaining in the wild. Despite conservation efforts, they are still headed toward extinction, due to habitat loss, illegal poaching and human-wildlife conflicts, Marker said.
“Cheetahs don’t do very well in captivity,” Marker added. “The current state is precarious.”
Locally, CCF works with the Cincinnati Zoo and Miami University to spread the word.
“They say if you can save a cheetah, you can save anything,” said Carl Hilker, a pilot also known for a variety of aviation activities.
Moving on
Walker remembered Carl Hilker regaling members of the Neutrons flying club at the Blue Ash Airport with stories of island hopping a refurbished DC-3 back from Guyana after the proprietors of the Hamilton Airport traded helicopter parts to the Guyanese government for the plane.
In Dayton, Hilker was known for piloting hot air balloons at Dayton International Air Shows and firing a cannon to start half marathons.
“All the car alarms in downtown Dayton went off,” he recalled.
Carl Hilker remains on the CCF board but has refocused his efforts on proving a tree on CCF land is the oldest in the world. Last week he was reviewing information about submitting samples from the tree for carbon dating.
“I wish I was just getting out of grad school,” he said. “This is probably the last significant thing I can do in my life.”
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