Reproductive life history of South African cheetahs (Acynonyx jubatus jubatus) at the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park, 1970–2005

Abstract

We analyzed 35 years of data from a captive breeding program of cheetahs to determine basic reproductive life history characteristics of females. Breeding females ranged in age from 2.7-10.5 years. Sixteen females and over 13 males produced 129 cubs in 36 litters, with an average litter size of 3.6. Older females produced significantly fewer cubs per litter than younger females, but cub survivorship was comparable across female ages. Sex ratio was balanced at birth and 71% of infants survived the weaning period. Given that the reproductive output of captive cheetahs in our study is similar to that in other zoologic institutions and to cheetahs in the wild, we suggest that reproductive deficits in captive cheetahs arise from the inability of some pairs to breed, due to a lack of mating preference, rather than from a species-wide problem.

Sex‐specific actuarial and reproductive senescence in zoo‐housed tiger (Panthera tigris): The importance of sub‐species for conservation

“…Actuarial senescence has been shown to differ between sexes according to species mating system (e.g., in ungulates, Tidière et al, 2015): as a polygynous species (Horev et al, 2012), we expected that tiger males exhibit a faster actuarial senescence than females, resulting in a shorter longevity. In addition, age is a widely proposed factor to explain reproductive success variability in zoo-housed as well as free-ranging populations (Augustus et al, 2006;Hayward et al, 2014Hayward et al, , 2015Karniski et al, 2018;Tidière et al, 2018). Accordingly, as only females bear gestation and offspring care costs until cubs disperse (Sunquist & Sunquist, 2002), we expected more marked reproductive senescence patterns for females than for males.…”

“…If this argument is not valid in zoos, where food acquisition does not pose a problem, we can imagine a senescence in milk production physiology. A depreciation of the female reproductive system and a decrease of maternal ability to take care of cubs may not necessarily be inter-related, as observed in a zoohoused population of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) where mean litter size was negatively influenced by maternal age but not cub survival (Augustus et al, 2006).…”

Advertising sex and individual identity by long‐distance chirps in wild‐living mature cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus)

“…In captivity, chirping might be less frequent and occurred when cheetahs were out of sight in spacious enclosures (Smirnova et al, 2016) or during separations (Ruiz‐Miranda et al, 1998). Additional factors affecting the acoustics of the chirps in some captive cheetahs probably were the non‐naturalistic social structure of captive groups, as for example lack of male coalitions (Augustus et al, 2006; Caro, 1993) or keeping females together with other females (Wielebnowski & Brown, 1998), but see Ruiz‐Miranda et al (1998) and Chadwick et al (2013), for the studies where males were kept in coalitions. Another reason might be the non‐naturalistic contexts of calling, for example, vocalizing toward zoo keepers at food anticipation (Nagorzanski, 2018; Smirnova et al, 2016; Stoeger‐Horwath & Schwammer, 2003; Volodina, 1994a).…”

A new perspective on the pathogenesis of chronic renal disease in captive cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus)

“…The following data were recorded: sex; date of birth (for captive bred animals) and estimated date of birth (for wild born animals); whether or not the cheetahs had normal coats or were king coat variants; and age at death. Based on published life history information[ 39 ], five age groups were identified: neonates (up to 20 days old), juveniles (21 to 83 days old), subadult cheetahs (84–810 days old), adults (811–3600 days old) and elderly cheetahs (3601+ days old). The following information was also recorded: whether or not CRD caused death; presence or absence of focal palatine erosions, enterocolitis and chronic renal infarcts at death; and scores of gastritis, glomerulosclerosis, renal cortical fibrosis, renal medullary fibrosis and medullary amyloidosis at death.…”