Since my last blog (see How to Spot a Cheetah), I have been hard at work collecting behavioral data on the cheetah sisters on exhibit at the Wild Animal Park. Telling them apart is a piece of cake now, which definitely makes data collection easier. Cheetah sibling interactions are no different than human sibling interactions, especially with three adolescent females. Sometimes they enjoy hanging out together while other times it seems they just don’t want to be bothered.

The sisters seem to have their favorites and behave accordingly. Looking at the interactions they have with each other, as well as noting if one sister prefers the company of another, is a perfect way for me to see if the sisters have a distinct dominance hierarchy. This hierarchy can then be compared to hormone levels of reproductive cycles in the cheetahs to see if the dominant cheetah is behaviorally suppressing her sisters from cycling. This is important for us to know in order to best house our lovely cheetah girls.

As many pet owners know, cats enjoy spending most of their time sleeping. Cheetahs are no different! The fact that the girls spend a lot of their time relaxing makes it difficult to record social interactions with each other. However, all is not lost. I can record which sisters relax next to others, and which ones relax alone. Even though they are not actively interacting, the fact that they make the choice to be next to another cheetah is an important choice I must be aware of. In fact, for being a solitary animal, the girls surprisingly spend almost half of their time together. Once I analyze my data, I will be able to see who the cooler sister is to hang out with and what this means for dominance.

When the cheetahs do interact with each other, it usually seems to be friendly. They enjoy grooming, playing, following, and approaching one another. There have been some instances of aggression and avoidance, but not many so far. The sisters seem to be getting along quite well. This is good news for their housing situation, because it appears they don’t mind living together.

At this point, a strong dominance hierarchy does not seem to be emerging. This could be because the sisters are still young, and once they get older they won’t enjoy hanging out as much with each other. It could just mean that within our group of cheetahs the sisters have chosen a democracy instead of a monarchy. I still have about a month left to collect more data and further analyze what is going on behaviorally and hormonally with these cheetahs. Even though no strict hierarchy characterizes the sisters, Moyo seems to be the magnet because she’s the favorite to be near. Check back in a month or so to find out more.

Megan Petersdorf is a CRES Bonner summer fellow in the San Diego Zoo’s Behavioral Biology Division.

Posted in Conservation, Default, General | Link to this post

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Scroll to the end to leave a comment. Pinging is not allowed.