Science
Martijn Hart
GREENWICH, Conn. — With her tiny paws perched on a bale of hay, 2-month-old Adaeze crouched, wiggled her tail and prepared to leap onto her brother’s back. Her soft fur covered in spots and a ridge of long hair down her spine, Adaeze is part of a litter of cubs born to an extremely rare king cheetah at Greenwich’s Lionshare Educational Organization (LEO) Zoological Conservation Center.
On Sept. 1, king cheetah Mona Lisa, a first-time mother, gave birth to eight cubs — four males and four females — one of the largest litters ever recorded. The cubs are even more significant because two of them will eventually be sent to South Africa as part of a pioneering captive-bred, wild-release program.
“Mona Lisa is one of what is believed to be only about 30 king cheetahs left in the world,” said Marcella Leone, director of the nonprofit LEO Center. “We are not necessarily breeding to get more king cheetahs, but to have this gene — this rare, recessive allele [alternative form of a gene] — passed on to the cubs is incredibly important.”
King cheetahs get their distinctive coat patterns from a genetic mutation. They were once considered a separate species, according to Big Cat Rescue. The cubs carry the two copies of the recessive gene and, if they mate with other king cheetahs, will produce king cheetah offspring.
“We study the genetics of these animals and what ranges they come from, and then — through a very careful, long process — they are released into the wild and monitored with collars. In this program, two [non-king] captive-bred cheetahs have reproduced in the wild already, so there is hope,” Leone said.
The two cubs heading to South Africa (one male and one female, when they're about a year old) will not be released into the wild, but their offspring will be, Leone said. Four of the other cubs in the litter will be sent to zoos across the United States, and two will remain at the LEO Center. Because of the size of Mona Lisa's litter, zookeepers have stepped in to bottle-feed some of the cubs.
Cheetahs are the fastest land animals and are among the most threatened. Though their habitat once spanned Africa and Asia, it’s estimated that the cheetah population has declined more than 90 percent over the past century. There are now only 7,000 to 10,000 cheetahs left in the wild, according to National Geographic.
“The biggest reason the cheetah population has declined so drastically is human-animal conflict. Cheetahs need a huge territory, sometimes up to 57 square miles, and that is well overlapping the boundaries of our nature preserves,” Leone said.
“When cheetahs do come into contact with humans, they are both competing for the same beautiful savanna land. For a cheetah, it’s perfect for hunting and running, but for the people that live there, it’s perfect grazing land for cattle and goats and sheep.”
Ranchers have killed cheetahs after the big cats preyed on livestock. But several projects aimed at helping ranchers protect livestock with guard dogs have proved promising. The Cheetah Conservation Fund said its program in Namibia using Anatolian shepherds helped reduce livestock losses more than 95 percent while protecting cheetahs.
Although cheetahs are some of the most difficult animals to breed in captivity, Leone said doing so is crucial to saving the species. Female cheetahs don’t ovulate until they are in close proximity with males. Females live alone except while caring for cubs, but male cheetahs spend their lives with their brothers in what are known as coalitions. Two male cheetahs also call the LEO Center home.
“Cheetahs won’t breed in front of humans, and they need a lot of land like we have here,” Leone said of the 100-acre facility, which runs entirely on donations. “And although eight cubs is a lot for any mother to manage, let alone a first-timer, Mona Lisa is doing great.”
The success of this litter is cause for hope, Leone added.
“Nature can come back, and that’s the beautiful thing,” she said. “We as humans can disrupt things, but hopefully we as humans will also realize we can play a role in bringing back nature where we can.”
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