BBC films 'pioneering' research
on cheetah reproduction

On July 10th, a team of three BBC filmmakers arrived at CCF in Otjiwarongo to document the innovative tactics being implemented to breed cheetahs. The footage they collect during their four-day stay will be featured on the popular BBC Two science series Horizon early in 2007.

The programme for which they were shooting covers worldwide efforts to save endangered species from the brink of extinction, with an emphasis on assisted reproduction. “We are going to cover the incredible pioneering efforts of reproductive scientists as they devise new methods of breeding critically endangered animals,” said Horizon producer Charles Colville at the start of the visit.

The crew has already traveled to the Czech Republic to capture attempts to breed the last of thirteen remaining Northern white rhinoceroses left in the world. They also plan to shoot footage of scientists propagating both Asian and African elephants, as well as the Southern white rhinoceros—the more common subspecies. But they jumped at the opportunity to document the research being performed at CCF. The film crew heard about the studies being conducted at CCF only nine days before they actually arrived—which is quite a slim margin in which to make travel plans and arrangements—but they could not miss this special opportunity to observe a landmark study in carnivore conservation.

CCF is currently a hotbed for cheetah reproductive research. A team of collaborative researchers from the Smithsonian Institute and the University of California, Davis—both in the United States—are performing a groundbreaking study in collaboration with CCF about reproductive health of female cheetahs of different ages. Their study, which reached a climax recently, involves inducing estrus in eleven female cheetahs and then extracting their eggs before they ovulate. With these eggs, the researchers have already begun to perform in vitro fertilization—the fusion of egg and sperm outside the reproductive tract—with sperm collected from one of CCF’s male cheetahs in their on-site laboratory. The BBC film crew has been tailing the scientists as they have worked to successfully pioneer methods of artificial reproduction in cheetahs.

“Every single procedure is utterly unique and stunning. The level of professionalism is incredible,” said Coleville of the egg extractions and fertilizations he has documented for the programme.

The team also conducted intensive interviews with Dr. Adrienne Crosier, who is heading up the research team, and Dr. Laurie Marker, executive director of CCF. In different ways, both have devoted themselves to the survival of the cheetah. Dr. Crosier focuses on breeding captive cheetahs so that zoos can maintain self-sustaining populations, whereas Dr. Marker has concentrated her efforts on studying the ecology of wild cheetahs and promoting coexistence between farmers in Namibia and the cheetahs that inhabit their land. But they both offer insightful commentary on the conservation of the endangered cheetah.

The programme will air on BBC Two in January 2007.

For more on the research, click here