About the friendship cats dogs

If you visit the zoo in San Diego and decide to look at the cheetahs, you can see next to one of them a dog, and it is not by chance ran dog, and "companion", specially selected under the program "Animal Ambassadors".

1. In the last century in the wild lived about 100 thousand cheetahs, now they are less than 12 thousand and they completely destroyed in 13 countries. Formidable-looking predator Cheetah timid by nature, most cheetahs leads a lonely life and does not admit to imagine anyone, which greatly complicates the process of reproduction in captivity, especially given the fact that the estrus in females begins only in the presence of males.

2. Oddly enough, the presence of dogs, cheetahs suffer much easier than the presence of other individuals of their own species, moreover, the presence of dogs allows you to tame cheetahs instincts and make them more tolerant to the presence of other cheetahs and even humans.

3. In 4 of the 19 cheetahs of the zoo of San Diego has a companion – a dog, take them primarily from shelters, given the nature of the animal and reduce the three-month puppies cheetahs of the same age. The dog has a dominant position in the pair and serves as a model for behavior, and protect his ward. Since childhood, animals spend almost all time together.

4.

5. The presence of the dog allowed to suppress the cat's cowardly nature and not only contribute to the success of the zoo in the captive breeding of cheetahs (135 in the last 40 years), but also to create visitors the opportunity to witness the speed of the fastest runners nature. A Cheetah can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (96,6 km) per hour in 3.4 seconds.

6. Speed is very important for survival, as the Cheetah is not fit to fight larger predators. The Cheetah is capable of speeds of 60-70 miles (96.6 per in 112.6 km) per hour, depending on its size, but run as they could only 20-30 seconds if running will take a minute or more, the animal runs the risk of dying, as overexertion and heat exhaustion can literally "fry" his insides at this speed.

7. The only companion dog that was taken from a shelter, this Anatolian shepherd Yeti.

8. Anyone certainly not know, how did the idea podselyat dogs to cheetahs, but this breed helped her move.

9. In 1981, the zoo was transferred two cheetahs together with the dogs and the transfer condition was not to divide the animals, as they got used to each other. At the same time, the Anatolian shepherd indirectly helped preserve the population of cheetahs in Africa.

10. About 20 years ago, Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in the Southern African nation of Namibia, brought from Turkey, these dogs and given to local farmers to shepherds defended their flocks. Large dogs successfully distilled predators and deprived farmers need to kill animals.

11. For the first time in 30 years the population of cheetahs began to grow.