The King Cheetah arguably has the most beautiful unusual coat in the Big Cat family. Its coat features cream-coloured fur marked with large, blotchy spots and three dark, wide stripes extending from the neck to the tail. In Zimbabwe it is known as ‘nsuifisi’ as it was thought to be a cross between a leopard and a hyena!
So how on earth does a cheetah get stripes? Remember that high school biology class when the teacher talked about dominant and recessive genes? Remember? Or were you daydreaming?
Well, the king cheetah’s striped pattern is caused by reinforcement of a recessive gene. When two mating cheetahs are heterozygous carriers of the mutated allele, a quarter of their offspring can be expected to be king cheetahs. Bear in mind that on average the cheetah gives birth to three to four cubs! Cheetah cubs have a schockingly high mortality rate (up to 95%!).
The King Cheetah is so rare. Its world population is just under 30 individual cheetahs, with merely a possible 10 living in the wild scattered throughout Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.
Some years back, a spotless or golden cheetah was spotted and photographed in Kenya in Kapiti Plains.
This cheetah has no spots or markings at all apart from the tear drop Instead they have some light freckles on their backs. They are very rare but do exist.
Scientists believe it is a 'morph' due to a recessive gene and not an albino or leucistic variation which makes this cheetah. It is believed that the genetic throwback may actually help the golden cheetah thrive in the wild as it could be mistaken for a lion.
Cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 130km/h over short bursts, and can accelerate from 0 to just over 95km/h in just 3 seconds. The cheetah’s tail help to steer the cheetah as it runs, like a rudder on a boat.
The national wildlife census 2021 states there are 1,160 cheetahs in Kenya.
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