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"I don't want him to eat
any more of my antelope," ranch owner Jean-Charles Lung
explains to Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund
(CCF). But he supports her work, and as they talk he agrees that this is a
magnificent specimen. "I'll give him to a farmer friend to
keep for show," Lung decides.
Marker pleads that the
cheetah's natural urge to
roam, to run faster
than all other creatures, will be crushed by a lifetime of
confinement in a small compound. Lung hesitates, but she does not give
up. "You can
have this fellow," he finally says, "provided you
release him a long way from my ranch."
That night, an exhausted Marker makes many phone calls around the
country. Finally, a farmer agrees to let the cheetah be released
on his ranch 185 miles to the south.
BORN
TO RUN
Laurie Marker was a veterinary assistant at the Wildlife Safari park near Winston, Oregon, when she caught her
first glimpse of a cheetah at full speed. "It was a
revelation," she recalls.
The cheetah
can accelerate from a standstill
to 60 m.p.h. in just three seconds, one second faster than the
fastest Ferrari road car. But the effort overheats its system and
the cheetah can only run for about 400 yards at its top speed of
70 m.p.h. Then it must cool down, resting for at least 30 minutes.
Marker was captivated by the grace of these predators,
but was surprised to learn that they have a timid nature. Though
they growl when angry, the cheetahs also mew and purr like a pet tabby,
and even chirp like birds to call each other.
Cheetahs are one of man's oldest animal companions. Ancient
Sumerians kept them 5000 years ago; Egyptian Pharaohs revered them
as goddesses. Over the centuries Austrian emperors, French kings
and Italian princes treasured the stately cats as status symbols.
Marker's growing attraction was
sealed when she adopted a six-week-old in 1976. "Four of the
litter were hissing, spitting, fireballs of fluff," she
remembers. "The fifth was calm and gentle."
She named the gentle cub Khayam and raised
it in her home with Sheso, her Labrador retriever. "Sheso
licked Khayam's fur clean and played throat-bite with her,"
Marker says.
STARTLING
DISCOVERY
After this experience, Marker returned to America, joining David
Wildt of the Smithsonian Institution, who had just learned one
reason captive cheetahs were not breeding
well. Wildt had taken sperm samples of dozens of cheetahs, and he
came up with a startling discovery.
"Compared with domestic cats, the cheetahs' sperm count was
remarkably low," he explains, "and 75 percent of what
they produced was abnormally shaped, unable to fertilize an
egg." Wild cheetahs suffered from the genetic deficiency as
well.
About four million years ago, when the cheetah evolved
in what is now Texas, Wyoming and Nevada, their numbers were
plentiful and they crossed over land bridges into Europe, China,
India and Africa. By the end of the Great Ice Age, about 10,000
years ago, many of the world's large mammals had become extinct.
The cheetahs were pushed to the edge, but a few survived in Africa
and Asia.
All
cheetahs have since descended from those survivors and they have a
dangerous susceptibility to disease because of a compromised
immune system.
WE
MUST HELP LAURIE
Marker ultimately resigned a prestigious position at the National
Zoo in Washington, D.C., moving to Namibia in 1991. Her
remote farm had no electricity or generator at first, and the tin
roof leaked. Still she
was sure she could make a difference. "Old memories stiffened my
resolve."
In the next few years, Marker would need all of that resolve. The
farmers were mostly third-generation descendants of German and
Afrikaner settlers who'd braved harsh conditions to turn arid land
into cattle ranches. While many animal conservationists take a
confrontational stand against farmers for harming endangered
species, Marker knew this strategy was futile; Namibian law
recognized the right of farmers to kill wild animals that
threatened livestock. "I had to find a peaceful
compromise," she says.
During one discussion a farmer
stared her in the eye and barked, "Go back to America and
take all our damned cheetahs with you." Marker forced a
smile.
But she persisted. By putting radio collars on a dozen cheetahs
and tracking their movements, Marker was able to show farmers that
these cats roamed
widely.
It was progress of
a sort, but most farmers refused to stop killing cheetahs until
they attended a meeting nearly two years after she arrived. There
were about a dozen farmers, and one of the younger ones told an
unexpected story. Jörg Diekmann was 12 years old when he saw his
father shoot a cheetah as she crossed a track with her two cubs.
The cubs got away but were doomed to die.
"I've never forgotten my sorrow," he revealed.
"Cheetahs have been here much longer than us, and they are
threatened," he declared. "We must help Laurie save
them. They are free to run on my farm."
It was a breakthrough. And today Marker estimates about two out of
three farmers in her area of the country no longer kill cheetahs.
"Laurie has made a substantial contribution to Namibia's
efforts to understand and manage the cheetah population,"
says Philip Stander, a wildlife expert with Namibia's
Department of the Environment.
At the Cheetah Conservation Fund's headquarters, a 37,000-acre
farm named Eland's Joy, several volunteers and high-level
researchers help Marker learn more about the cheetah's
habits.Marker has reintroduced cheetahs into a reserve in South
Africa where they had become extinct; she is also working with
researchers in Iran to find ways to increase the numbers of cats
in that country. Using the Internet, Marker keeps in touch with
zoos around the world to monitor the well-being and breeding
potential of some 1300 captive cheetahs in 50 countries.
Two days after he was captured at
Jean-Charles Lung's ranch, the big male cheetah was put on the
back of a truck and driven to his new home, 15,000 acres of bush
backed by low, rugged mountains. The cat paused a moment as if bewildered
by his sudden freedom. Then he dashed off into the safety of the
trees.
"Releasing a cheetah back into the wild always gives me goose
bumps," Marker says. "The world would be a lesser
place without these beautiful big cats. Each one we save makes it
more likely that the cheetah will be around for a long, long time
to come."
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