By Scientific American / Source: ScientificAmerican

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Researchers at the Smithsonian National Zoo Center for Species Survival in Front Royal, VA, and the Cheetah Conservation Fund are developing ways to rebuild cheetah populations using artificial insemination and embryo transfers

SIBLING LOVE Laurie Marker, founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), poses with sibling cheetahs Tiger Lily (female) and Khayjay (male) in early 2015. The animals are originally from the Okakarara region of Namibia, but now live in CCF’s cheetah sanctuary in Namibia.

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ROAR One of the five cubs born naturally to mother Amani at the National Zoo’s Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in May 2011. The zoo is working to build captive cheetah populations via natural and assisted breeding programs as well as study the basic biology of this charismatic big cat.

Cheetah family group, Amani and 11 month old cubs

FAMILY PORTRAIT Mother Amani and her 11-month-old cubs at the National Zoo’s Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in April 2012.

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SEQUENCING THE CHEETAH GENOME Stephen O’Brien, chief scientific officer at Saint Petersburg State University’s Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics in Russia; Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, assistant director for animal health and research at CCF; and Marker take a tissue sample from the cheetah Chewbaaka in order to sequence the species’s genome. Marker raised Chewbaaka from the time he arrived at CCF as a 10-day-old orphan until he died in 2011 at age 16. O’Brien and Marker say they plan to publish the cheetah genome later this year.

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TIME FOR A CHECKUP Marker and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin work on a cheetah named HiFi in CCF’s veterinary clinic. HiFi was a wild cheetah that Marker had tracked near CCF for more than six years. Here, they change his satellite collar, collect blood, measure him and check his teeth and eyes. They also collect sperm samples that are frozen and stored. These samples could be used in artificial insemination or embryo transfers in order to increase cheetah populations.

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