Cheetah conservation: Namibia’s frozen lifeline for the fastest animal

For 35 years, American zoologist Laurie Marker has been collecting and storing specimens in a cheetah sperm bank in Namibia, hoping conservationists never have to use them.

But she worries that the world’s fastest land animal might one day be so depleted that only artificial reproduction could save it.

Marker says the sperm bank at the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which she founded in the southern African nation, is a “frozen zoo” she has been building since 1990. It’s a last-resort repository for a species whose numbers have fallen sharply in the wild over the last half-century.

“You don’t do anything with it unless it’s needed,” Marker, one of the world’s foremost cheetah experts, told The Associated Press from her research centre near Otjiwarongo. “And we never want to get to that point.”

Conservationists mark World Cheetah Day on Thursday with fewer than 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild — similar to the critically endangered black rhino. Marker says only about 33 populations remain across Africa, most with fewer than 100 animals.

Like many species, the sleek cats capable of reaching 70 miles per hour (112 kilometres per hour) face habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and illegal trafficking. Their shrinking, fragmented populations also erode genetic diversity as small groups repeatedly breed within themselves, affecting reproduction.

Globally, cheetah numbers have dropped 80% in 50 years, and the species has been pushed out of 90% of its historic range. Scientists believe cheetahs narrowly escaped extinction at the end of the last ice age 10,000-12,000 years ago, a genetic bottleneck whose effects linger today.

Marker said their limited genetic diversity, coupled with cheetahs’ 70–80% abnormal sperm rate, suggests they might eventually need help. “And so, a sperm bank makes perfect sense, right?” she said.

Storing sperm is not unique to cheetahs. Conservationists now use reproductive technologies for elephants, rhinos, antelopes, other big cats, birds and more. Marker points to the desperate attempt to save the northern white rhino as evidence of the method’s value.

Marker doesn’t chase down cheetahs to collect samples. She does it opportunistically, often when farmers call her team about cats injured or trapped on their land. Samples are taken while treating and releasing the animals. Sperm can also be collected from cheetahs found dead. “Every cheetah is actually a unique mix of a very small number of genes. We will try to bank every animal we possibly can,” she said.

Samples from roughly 400 cheetahs are now stored at ultralow temperatures in liquid nitrogen at the Cheetah Conservation Fund’s laboratory. Marker’s research does not involve artificial insemination, as breeding wild animals in captivity is not permitted in Namibia.

Should cheetahs face extreme decline again, the first fallback would be the roughly 1,800 cats in zoos and other captive settings. But Marker notes that cheetahs don’t breed well in captivity, making the sperm bank a potential final safeguard.

Without it, she said, “we’re not going to have much of a chance.”

Associated Press