![]() Part of the reason for the reproductive impairments was likely the relative paucity of overall genome variability in cheetahs sampled from zoos and in wild populations from southern and eastern Africa. Cheetah males displayed a 10-fold reduction in sperm count plus an elevated incidence of malformed spermatozoa (~70–75% of sperm in any males had super large heads, tiny heads, coiled or bent tails, indicators of sterility in other Felidae species) ( O’Brien et al. Even so, cub mortality was 30–40% higher than almost all zoo animals leading to a captive population that was hardly sustainable ( Marker and O’Brien 1989 O’Brien et al. When breeding was attempted in zoos in the 1950–1980 period, cheetahs were unusual in that they bred poorly in captivity, rarely exceeding 15% success of attempted pairing. ![]() The cheetah remains emblematic of the threats facing wildlife, not only because of its unique adaptations but also its distinctive evolutionary history ( Neff 1983 Marker and Eszterhas 2014). ![]() Acinonyx jubatus, Cheetah genome, Indian Cheetah, population bottleneck
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