Comparing Growth Rates of Somaliland and Namibian Cheetah Cubs

Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are classified as endangered species by the IUCN, facing major threats of habitat loss, illegal pet trade and human-cheetah conflicts. With approximately 7,500 individuals left in the wild across Africa, research is significant to understanding and ensuring their species’ survival. At Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), located in Namibia, research has been ongoing since its establishment in 1990, and was once known as the cheetah capital of the world. CCF also has a campus in Somaliland, where currently 86 cheetahs of the “Tanzanian cheetahs” (Acinonyx jubatus raineyi) are being cared for, and 29 “South African cheetahs” (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) at Namibia’s facility. This project investigates the comparison of growth rates between Somaliland and Namibian cheetah cubs. Through CCF’s data of cheetah cubs rescued between 2006-2022 within Somaliland and Namibia, weights, meat and milk consumption has been recorded from 0-6 months and organized in a new Excel Spreadsheet. 19 individuals are recorded from Namibia, and 46 are recorded from Somaliland. Few statistics through RStudio have been done, however significant results of the sum of weights from 0-6 months with other covariates indicate males have a higher growth rate than females, and Somaliland has a lower growth rate than Namibian cheetah cubs. Further statistics will be conducted to understand more about growth rates and what affects it, as well as the difference between Namibian and Somaliland cheetah cubs.

Good Afternoon! My name is Gwendolyne Fields, and you are joining me here today with Peter, Tiger-lily and Senay in Namibia. For the past two months I have been here at Cheetah conservation fund, also known as CCF. CCF was established in 1990 by Dr. Laurie Marker, where the goal is to help conserve these endangered species.

So, a lot of our cats here are permanent residents. So, this means that a lot of them have come in before the age of 6 months and because of that, their mothers were not able to teach them the proper skills to actually survive in the wild. So, some skills including what prey to hunt, such as duikers, steenboks, springboks, kudus and oryx’s as well as what predators to avoid: lions, snakes and hyenas. And so, a lot of them have actually also been useful for research and understanding more about the species themselves and how to conserve them the best.

So here on our Namibian campus, we have 29 cheetahs and on Somaliland’s facility we have 86 cheetahs. So a lot of these cheetahs have come in at very different ages, so these siblings came to us at the age of four weeks. Others have come in at 5 days, 10 days, so very young. A lot of the cheetahs that have come in were rescued with different scenarios, so some farmers actually might have killed the mothers, some farmers might have captured them and in other cases people have kept the cheetahs as pets as well. So, like I mentioned before, having them here has been very useful for research and also their conservation.

Here are three of our cheetah cubs at CCF who arrived when they were 3 weeks old. Speaking of cheetah cubs for my research project, I have been working with Dr. Laurie marker, and other CCF staff members as well as my mentor Dr. David Luther where I am investigating the comparison of Somaliland and Namibian cheetah cubs growth rates. From data collected back from 2006 until most recently 2022, I have been gathering all this information on a new excel spreadsheet from individuals between the ages 0-6 months.

Other than spending time on my research project, I have been part of the cheetah team working to take care of the cheetahs by feeding them, giving their meds if needed, cleaning and managing their enclosures.

Moving on to the results for the project so far. I have created some graphs as well as produced some statistical analysis of the data through RStudio.

This first graph demonstrates the average weights of Somaliland and Namibian Cheetah cubs from the age of Day 1-14. As you can see there is a linear relationship between the weights and days of the cubs. The R-squared value is around 0.59 indicating a moderate goodness of fit of the model. We notice the Somaliland average weights are less than the Namibian weights. The second graph demonstrates the average weights of Somaliland and Namibian Cheetah cubs from the ages of Week 3-26. The R-squared value of 0.91 demonstrates a very strong linear relationship. Once again, the Namibian weights are larger than the Somaliland weights on average.

The third graph is a boxplot displaying the first two weeks of age. We notice the Namibian data appears to have more range and a higher average weight. The last graph is a boxplot displaying weeks 3-26 of age. We notice the Namibian data appears again to have more range and a higher average weight; however, it appears less robust than the previous graph. Running these last two graphs’ data through R, we found no significance in terms of their weights and comparing them between the two locations. Meaning the p-value was greater than 0.05.

Last but not least, the sum of the weights for all weeks did not appear to have significance with meat and milk consumption, yet the location of Somaliland was significant indicating their cubs are less likely to survive, and the males in general appear to have higher growth rates than females (indicating greater chance of survival).

We still have many questions to answer, such as how much the cheetah cubs grow in general, what month they grow the most and how exactly does diet affect their growth, especially relating between the two locations of cheetahs.

Thank you so much for watching and for everyone who has helped me on my project so far! Bye!