May

30

2007
 
 

Love cheetahs



Female felids play the field, DNA study reveals

Who's the daddy?If following a large carnivore around until it “answers the call of nature” is your thing, read on. Working in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, biologists from the Zoological Society of London, led by Dada Gottelli, did just that to collect 171 dung samples from cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus that were traceable to their owners. DNA analysis of said stools, published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, revealed a hitherto unknown facet of cheetah reproductive biology: females often mate with more than one male. Forty-three percent of litters containing more than one cub were sired by more than one male. That’s good news for cheetah conservation prospects because it suggests that a much higher number of males contribute to the gene pool, so helping to keep levels of genetic diversity from being eroded. The findings should inform management plans for the survival of this most flighty, promiscuous of cats. Source: Gottelli D, Wang J, Bashir S & Durant SM (2007) Genetic analysis reveals promiscuity among female cheetahs. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.0502

Related story in Conservation magazine: More than Meets the Eye: Behavior and Conservation

Image © Susann Evans

Filed Under Endangered species, Restoration, Monitoring, Tools and technology | 

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