Yes, the cheetah is the fastest running animal alive, reaching 70 miles per hour. No, you can’t escape, even if you tried, you need a car going down the highway to avoid dodging if one is chasing you. And these wild cats learn to run at a very young age, even the kittens are fast, agile and have a lot of energy.

Cheetahs are also very sociable and make all kinds of sounds, this is their way of communication. They use it when they hunt, rest, play, and some of those sounds are mating calls, which also evoke biological responses.

There was an excellent article on this in a San Diego Zoological Society publication “ZooNooz” in their December 2009 issue titled; “You Hear What I Hear: New Breeding Protocol for Cheetahs” by Karyl Carmignani (Staff Writer) along with great close-up photos by award-winning zookeeper and photographer Ken Bohn of the San Diego Zoo.

According to their article, zookeepers keep track of the sounds cheetahs make and know when a male and female are ready to mate. In fact, they have now recorded these sounds along with the others. And there are many depending on the article; “purring, squeaking, growling, growling, hissing, coughing, moaning”, but it is the singing that excites the female and “activates her biological functions to drop eggs” on her female parts and start her reproductive system.

This is fascinating, and it’s great that the San Diego Zoo can use these sounds and speakers to help this process, so that many healthy pups are born at exactly the right time, even in captivity. It is amazing that the science of zoology is saving endangered species. Perhaps these techniques can be used to help other animals in the animal kingdom do the same?

Wildlife conservation is very important for species that are struggling in the wild, some due to encroachment by humanity and/or hunting, and damage to the food chain caused by human activity. In fact, I hope you consider all of this when you think about wildlife conservation.