I Started Out Studying Cheetahs...

While speaking with a client on the phone today, my early career in exotic animals came up.  She was interested in hearing more about what I had done with cheetahs as she loved the photo of (a very young!) me with one of the cheetahs in my study, Kittani. Really brought back memories being able to talk about my research with this client, so thought, perhaps, others might be interested as well.

In the late 1980's, I competed against undergraduate and graduate student applicants across the country for a coveted summer internship at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, studying cheetahs for the Zoo's Director of Research. The project was to be part of the Cheetah SSP, or Species Survival Plan. I was thrilled to learn that I had beat out the other applicants and would be spending my summer studying my favorite animal.

There are so many amazing things about my experience studying these animals,  not the least of which was that I was given pretty much free rein to devise my research question, plan out how to collect the data, and process the data so that it could be published in a scholarly journal.  The Zoo's director was an amazing individual who oversaw my project, but really just left me to do it, trusting me to conduct myself and my research in accordance with the guidelines established by the AAZPA, the American Association of  Zoological Parks and Aquariums.

There was a great deal of interest at that time in the way captive animal species were fed.  My theory was that more naturalistic feeding protocols for animal species like cheetahs would result in better health and enhanced breeding with increased offspring survival. The official title of my study was, "Carcass Feeding of Captive Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus): The Effects of a Naturalistic Feeding Program on Oral Health and Psychological Well-Being." A mouthful (pun intended), to say the least!

As you might have guessed from that title, I fed the cheetahs in my study carcasses; dairy cattle carcasses, to be precise. I had a giant freezer truck full of them and would literally defrost them with a hose and haul them out to feed my study animals.  These animals had all previously been fed something called Zupreem.  This diet, while nutritionally balanced, has the consistency and texture of hamburger which means it did nothing to promote oral health in the animals eating it. I had 15 cheetahs in my study, some born right there in San Diego and a handful that had come from South Africa to become part of the breeding program at the Zoo. The location of these animals was off-exhibit meaning I spent my days about 5 miles down the road from the Wild Animal Park itself in a rugged area devoted to research.  There were enclosures with zebra and Przewalski's horses nearby, as well as condors. One of my cheetah enclosures was so large, with hilly terrain, that it took me approximately 45 minutes to walk the entire enclosure!

While my sample size of animals was small, my results were profound. Feeding a more naturalistic diet did indeed result in better oral health, and more importantly, happier animals that bred and produced healthy cubs.  One of my favorite female cheetahs, Imani, was the first to learn how to feed off of a carcass with my help and she, in turn, taught her cubs to feed off a carcass as well. I cried when I saw the videos of her doing this as I had spent hours coaxing her and the other cheetahs to approach, smell, and ultimately eat these carcasses. To this day, I still get requests for reprints of my study results originally published in 1990 in the journal "Applied Animal Behaviour Science."

I am incredibly proud of the work I did on cheetahs and think back fondly on my time in their company.  It was one of those "once in a lifetime" experiences that I will always cherish.  I have my memories and many photographs. And I always appreciate when someone asks me about the study.  In case you are interested in the conclusions of the study, here is the final abstract from that published paper:

"Based on preliminary observations of 15 cheetahs at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, a protocol of behaviors associated with feeding was devised. Five animals were then acclimated to videotaping from which comparisons of feeding on commercial and carcass diets were made. Improved appetites, longer feeding bouts and a greater possessiveness of food characterized the carcass-fed animals. Although the commercial diet is nutritionally balanced, these differences indicate that certain non-nutritive requirements are important to psychological health. In addition, the dental abnormalities and oral infections that are found in the captive population could be an indication of the importance of food texture. By recognizing the importance of food texture, flavor and temperature to the effort expended and interest demonstrated in feeding by captive cheetahs, we may enhance their physical and psychological well-being."