Did you see a baby cheetah mew before?

photo credit: jurvetson

King cheetahs are not so exceptional that you can’t see them in zoos (but you may have to travel to meet them). I wondered if it was possible to list of zoos of the world which have at least one of them in exhibition.

• DeWildt Cheetah Research Centre, in De Wildt (South Africa)
• Kapama Game Reserve (South Africa)
• Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo (Australia, NSW)
• Kgosi: animal ambassador from the Wild Cat Education & Conservation Fund in Occidental, California (USA).

Of course, such a list cannot be permanently up-to-date without the help of the readers of YLoveBigCats. Please, feel free to comment to add new locations (or tell when the last king cheetah of a zoo unfortunately died, as it happens sometimes).

Locations which previously had king cheetahs:

• Jama: Canberra National Zoo (Australia) – Was initially acquired from De Wilt Centre
• Singapore zoo in 2004
• Some king cheetahs have been spotted in 2005 around Tshukudu game lodge, in South Africa

King cheetah in Zoon Tycoon 2

If you play Zoo Tycoon 2, you may “adopt” cheetahs. Did you know that, with the help of chance, if you adopt a sufficiently large number of cheetahs, the game will offer you a king cheetah (easily recognizable by its fur more striped than spotted)?

Some species of mammals are clearly confronted with the immediate risk of extinction. And, when I shoot photos of some of these at the other end of the world, I am often shocked by the immense chance I have to be able to still see these animals free in the wild for the years they have left.

For example, cheetahs were submitted to a major event of reduction in genetics diversity during the last Ice Age (less than 10,000 animals fought for survival during thousands of years). Today, the enormous competition pressure brought by Man and “its civilization”, on top of the stark competition from other carnivorous mammals (like hyenas), will most certainly bring cheetah out of the African savannas in a few years (maybe less than 20 years).

Tigers are also in a nearly desperate situation today: The last wild animals are already living in relatively small Reserves where, even free in the wild, they have become tourism subjects without being fully protected from poaching or illegal culling.

This is the context when Frédéric Lepage created a series of TV documentaries about a few emblematic species (cheetah, orangutan, tiger, elephant, jaguar, polar bear): Extinctions

I strongly recommend your being in front of the TV (France 5, French TV channel), to watch the episode for Tiger, on Friday 6 August 2010 at 20h30.

Actually, the story is not as simple as it may seem, but this is the way it was presented in the Daily Mail.

As often happens in the wild, young cheetahs (or other young predators) have to learn how to catch and how to kill. In many cases, this goes very fast (think about the birds learning to fly when they first try). But cheetahs are known for spending some time at it. Mothers may catch a prey and teach young ones how to kill. Things may take time and the animals seem to be playing with the prey.

The Daily Mail just forgot to provide the real end of the story: The baby impala did not leave the premises alive. It may happen sometimes, not often, but here it was finally killed and eaten.

The photos were shot by Christine and Michel Denis-Huot, clearly some of the very best wildlife photographers in France (Christine is also commonly leading some photo safaris in Africa, you may find information on their web site).

Note: Impalas are really the most common food for cheetahs, probably because of their size (and large numbers in many parts of East and South of Africa).

WebEcoist assembled some nice photos of the nicest big cats.

• Tiger
• White Tiger
• Lion
• Leopard
• Black panther
• Cheetah
• Puma
• Snow Leopard
• Lynx
• Caracal

While randomly browsing old links from my bookmarks library, I found some that led me to a place I recommend to all cheetah lovers. The Cincinnati Zoo has a TwitPic account (CheetahDays) to presenter a daily photo of the zoo’s big cats. A large amount of cheetahs as you would expect, but you will also find a serval in a kitchen, an ocelot in a bath tub, some lions, …

No free wild animals, but some nice pictures.

Cheetahs prefer the front seat

There is no limit to true love. Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen truly loves cats: She has got eleven (11!) of them in her South African house.

Nothing really remarquable, except the cats are:

• Four cheetahs
• Five white lions
• Two tigers

…and I don’t count the dogs.

This is love, big lvoe!

Riana tries to help in protecting those endangered species, since 2006 when she adopted her first cheetah, Fiela.

Last but not least, remember that wild animals are still wild animals, even when they are perfectly integrated in a family. In this case, they also have a lot of free space, which must contribute a lot to the overall stability of this adventure.

Source: Daily Mail.

Andew Chase creates articulated metal sculptures that he photographs in a later stage. Here is a cheetah which is part of his Trionic Morphatractable Engineer photo book.