Cheetah Conservation Fund

Category: Cheetah - Research | Date: Oct 04 2007 | By: admin

We have been asked why research on captive cheetah reproduction is important to the species, and furthermore, some people have asked us why the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which works to conserve the wild cheetah, would be involved in captive reproduction.

Although saving habitat is our ultimate goal in saving the species, understanding all aspects of the cheetah’s biology and physiology is one of the very important pieces in saving the cheetah for future generations. In the world’s zoos, there is an abundance of older female cheetahs that carry valuable genes that are underrepresented in the gene pool. This research will help develop methods of impregnating the females and thus conserving their invaluable genes and infusing the captive population with much-needed genetic variation. This breakthrough in cheetah reproductive research has far reaching implications for the conservation of cheetah and demonstrates the benefits of an integrated approach of both captive and wild cheetah conservation programmes to ensure the survival of the species.