Cheetahs

[00:00:00] Alex Re: Hello, welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every month, and I guarantee you, you're gonna come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. On today's episode, we're talking about the fastest land animal alive.

[00:00:22] These big cats are extremely well adapted for speed, but there's a lot more to them than just how fast they are. Joining me to talk about them today is Lindsay Nikole, a zoologist and author with over 5 million followers on social media. She spent a lot of time working with these animals and even helping to raise them.

[00:00:44] Lindsay is here to tell us about her experiences and knowledge about these amazing animals. So join us as we head to the African savannas to talk about Aons Atu, commonly known as the cheetah.

[00:01:14] Hi Lindsay. How are you doing?

[00:01:15] Lindsay Nikole: I'm great. How are you? I'm excited to be here.

[00:01:18] Alex Re: Great. I'm excited to have you. Thanks so much for coming onto the podcast. Can't wait to get talking about cheetahs, but I, I kind of wanna hear about your background first. So what inspired you to become a zoologist?

[00:01:32] Lindsay Nikole: Oh man. Well, I used to be weirdly obsessed with lions in high school.

[00:01:37] You know how as a high schooler you just fixate on that one thing? Um, mine was lions and I came across a video of somebody volunteering at a big cat sanctuary that had lions in South Africa. In high school I had to do a senior project where I spent three weeks doing an internship. Something career related.

[00:01:58] Lions were not career related for me at the time, but I was like, I really wanna go, you know, volunteer with big cats. Luckily my, my school signed off on it. My parents said I could go as long as I could pay for it. So I got a job and I made it happen. I was not expecting it to take me on the journey that it did.

[00:02:16] I was initially gonna be going into criminology for college, but that one. Volunteer opportunity made me switch to zoology so that I could continue working with big cats. And then my obsession with lions turned into an obsession for animals in general.

[00:02:34] Alex Re: That's awesome. And, and what made you switch? From Lions to cheetahs.

[00:02:39] 'cause I know cheetahs are your favorite animal.

[00:02:41] Lindsay Nikole: Yeah, so luckily the school I ended up transferring to Oregon State University, offered an internship at Cheetah Conservation Fund. And I was like, you know what? Close enough, you know, like I can go back. 'cause the, the volunteer experience with big cats was South Africa and Namibia.

[00:02:59] It was just north of there and I was itching to get back. So once I got to Chitah Conservation Fund. Uh, it totally opened me up to the personalities of cheetahs, how sweet and feisty they can be. And all big cats are like that. All cats in general are like that, but there's definitely the charm of cheetahs not being able to roar and, you know, purring and meowing and doing all those cute little sounds that they do that just made me fall in love with them.

[00:03:26] And so definitely cemented as my all time favorite animal.

[00:03:32] Alex Re: That's awesome. And, and what? Kind of work were you doing at the Cheetah Conservation Fund?

[00:03:36] Lindsay Nikole: Yeah, so CCF rescues, REHABILITATES releases, cheetahs back into the wild. They also have this livestock gardening dog program because one of the main issues cheetahs face in Namibia and throughout Sub-Saharan African General is, uh, human wildlife conflict where farmers run into issues with carnivores that are trying to.

[00:04:00] Eat their livestock and cheetahs get a lot of blame for that. So CCF has this livestock Gardening dog program where they raise Anatolian Shepherds to then give out to farmers to help them protect their livestock so that farmers don't have to potentially put themselves in a dangerous situation with cheetahs or shoot cheetahs to protect their livelihood.

[00:04:20] So. A lot of the stuff I was doing was animal husbandry with, with cheetahs. I was feeding them, you know, getting to know their personalities, making sure that they were good on a daily basis. But then I was also helping to raise those Anatolian shepherds, the livestock gardening dogs feeding them as well, and.

[00:04:38] Taking care of the goats that those livestock gardening dogs were learning to protect. So they have a lot of moving parts there and luckily I got to be involved in pretty much all of them as an intern. And I mean, obviously my favorite part was the cheetahs. Like that's, that's what I wanted to do all the time.

[00:04:53] But being able to kind of see all of the working parts there and be involved in them was just super cool.

[00:05:00] Alex Re: That is really cool. And you don't think about the human. Cheetah interaction when you're thinking about conservation a lot of the time, how people that are living in that area, they rest their livelihoods on, on their farms and these wild animals are also interacting with them.

[00:05:21] So it's really interesting that they already have that program out there, the, the with the guard dogs.

[00:05:26] Lindsay Nikole: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's something that I, I wasn't really familiar with until I got there and it was just such a. Cool, innovative idea and solution that has really been a positive effect on Namibians and Namibian farmers and the cheetahs in Namibia.

[00:05:46] And you know that that human wildlife conflict is such a big issue that most large animals or predators face because it's just, you know, limited resources in an area you're bound to run into some issues. And the easiest, or not the easiest, but the best. Solution that you could find is a win-win solution where everybody, you know, comes away happy.

[00:06:09] So I'm happy they were able to do that.

[00:06:12] Alex Re: Yeah, absolutely. And can you walk us through what a day in the life of a cheetah would be in the wild?

[00:06:20] Lindsay Nikole: Oh yeah. Oh my God. Well first of all, I would love to be a cheetah because it would just be so nice to just, you know, lounge all day. So cheetahs. Are generally active at dawn and dusk.

[00:06:33] That's to avoid the heat during the day and also to avoid their competitors that are mostly active at night. So Lions and leopards mostly active at night. So then cheetahs kind of take that little window, which I think is the nicest window to be active. Like, you know, it's super cool, the sunrise, the sunset, it must be beautiful.

[00:06:50] And so that's when they're hunting during the day, they're resting. That's pretty much it. Like it, they're cats, you know what I mean? Like they're just, they're just hanging out, finding shaded areas and it's really just hunting, sleeping, and then if they have some cubs, you know, they're taking care of them.

[00:07:06] But that's pretty much it. And that sounds really nice.

[00:07:11] Alex Re: It really does. And I think it's interesting because. When you think of a cheetah, like the first thing you think of, is it just sprinting and being com extremely active, but the majority of their day, they're not actually doing that.

[00:07:26] Lindsay Nikole: Oh yeah. And if, if they don't have to do that, they're not doing that.

[00:07:30] And that's one thing that I realized working with the cheetahs at CCF, because you know, in captivity it's hard to give them that exercise. You can't just drop a goat. Into an enclosure and then let them chase. Like there's so many ethical issues with that. So the cats there get fed, you know, just big chunks of meat.

[00:07:50] And so in order to keep them active, they have this area where they bring the cheetahs in and they chase after this. A piece of cloth on a super fast string. They have that at a lot of zoos, but at CCF, it's like this huge track that they can just like run around. It's massive, but if the cheetahs aren't feeling it, they're not gonna do it.

[00:08:11] And so a lot of the time, you know, it activates their prey drive and they're into it. But if they're feeling lazy that day, there's nothing you can do about it. And at the end of the day, like they know they're gonna get fed no matter what. So yeah, they're just like our cats at home. But. Obviously much more ferocious, but yeah, lazy and, and sassy and just interested in lounging all day, which I love.

[00:08:38] Alex Re: I was about to say that just seems like a gigantic cat toy. Yeah. That they're chasing around

[00:08:43] Lindsay Nikole: pretty much. Yeah. I think they have, you know, smaller versions of that that you can get for your cats at home.

[00:08:50] Alex Re: And speaking of their speed, what kind of adaptations do cheetahs have that allow them to be the fastest land animal on the planet?

[00:09:00] Lindsay Nikole: Some of the sickest adaptations. I think possible. Obviously they're super long and slender, that's super helpful for speed in any circumstances. They also have a really flexible spine so that they can, you know, kind of make those super arched movements to create a la a longer stride, which is really sick.

[00:09:19] They also have larger and wider nasal passages that allow them to. Take in more oxygen. Same with their lungs and heart, like they're just taking in a lot more oxygen in order to keep up with that kind of speed. And their tail is also super long and muscular. Like if you look at the tail of a cheetah compared to the tail of, I don't know, a lion like.

[00:09:40] It's clear they're doing a lot more work with that tail. Like they kind of use it as a rudder to help them, you know, take sharper turns and stuff. And they also have semi retractable claws. So a lot of the cats that you know and love have fully retractable claws. Cheetahs have semi retractable claws so that they can get a good grip on the ground and not, you know, slide around and stuff.

[00:10:01] But it makes their claws not sharp. They're super, super, you know, just, what's the word? Flat? I guess so. Yeah. Yeah, those are, those are just a couple of them.

[00:10:11] Alex Re: Wow, that's really interesting. And are they social animals?

[00:10:15] Lindsay Nikole: Kind of like, they're not as solitary as tigers, but they're definitely not as social as lions in prides and stuff.

[00:10:24] So males will form these coalitions of two to three individuals, maybe four. They tend to be brothers, and they'll kind of stick. With each other for life, but females are solitary and the only time that females are with other cheetahs is really just when she has cubs. So if you find a female in the wild.

[00:10:44] With a few cheetahs, it's, you know, maybe the Cubs up to two years of age. That's generally when they tend to stay with their mom, learning how to hunt and all that. But males will stay in their coalitions for life. But then that also translates to captivity. Like it's a lot easier to put male cheetahs together and make it work and see if their personalities match than females.

[00:11:05] 'cause they're just attitude to the max.

[00:11:09] Alex Re: That's really interesting and it's. Interesting that zoos have to kind of think of that social dynamic when they're, you know, bringing in new animals, new individuals like that. And how do they communicate with each other?

[00:11:25] Lindsay Nikole: Oh yeah. So, I mean, cheetahs have some of the weirdest vocalizations ever.

[00:11:32] I mean, you know, they can't roar, so they meow. Just like house cats. They pur the purring is. The best thing on the planet, they'll spit too. I've been spit at by a cheetah if they're not happy. And you know what? My house cat is a, she spits too. And I, I never corrected it because it reminded me of cheetahs just, but yeah, it's a lot of, you know, chirps, Yelps, meowing.

[00:11:58] It's very, very, very cute. It makes them a lot cuter than they already are, in my opinion.

[00:12:03] Alex Re: And do they have any like visual cues that they communicate with?

[00:12:08] Lindsay Nikole: I mean, yeah, just like, you know, just like cats mm-hmm. That we have in our homes. You know, if, if they're not feeling confident or they're up against a threat, they'll like crouch down and the, the hair on the backs of, you know, behind their neck stuff will kind of stick up and stuff.

[00:12:26] And then when they spit, they usually do this like. Big pounce towards you. So then it's like the sound of, you know, them hitting the ground with the spit. It's a little freaky.

[00:12:37] Alex Re: That sounds scary. Yeah. And I know we talked about the adaptations that they have for speed. Are there any other adaptations that you find really interesting?

[00:12:47] Not necessarily having to do with their running ability?

[00:12:51] Lindsay Nikole: Yeah, there are little tear marks that they have, you know, around their nose. I think. Obviously make cheetahs cheetahs. That's what we love about cheetahs, along with their spots. But those kind of acts the same way that, you know, surfers will put zinc on their cheeks to keep the sun out of their eyes.

[00:13:08] It, it does the same thing for cheetahs, which is helpful in their, you know, open grassland habitats.

[00:13:14] Alex Re: I love hearing about all the different adaptations, like, especially like. Saharan animals have

[00:13:22] Lindsay Nikole: Yeah.

[00:13:23] Alex Re: For staying out of the sun or, or protecting themselves from, from the heat.

[00:13:27] Lindsay Nikole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, they gotta, they gotta make their habitats work, and so if they're not adapting to those habitats, it's really, really cool to see what kind of adaptations take place though, especially in those harsh environments.

[00:13:42] Alex Re: Even though cheetahs are well adapted to their environment, their populations are in danger. One reason why is because of the struggle for space between them and humans. We'll talk about that right after the break

[00:14:06] time for today's trivia question. We're talking about the fastest land animal today, but what's the fastest swimming animal?

[00:14:24] The answer is the black marlin. It can swim at up to 82 miles per hour. That's over 75 miles per hour faster than the fastest human swimmer.

[00:14:44] Okay. Now back to the episode, and I know you talked about the human cheetah conflict. What are some other issues that cheetah populations are having right now?

[00:14:58] Lindsay Nikole: There's a few. Human wildlife conflict is a big one, but you know the one that's affecting all animals on the planet today. Habitat loss, that's a huge one.

[00:15:08] Mm-hmm. For cheetahs in particular, they need a lot of open space in order to make those sprints to run after their prey, and something that's happening in a lot of areas in specifically Namibia. I can't speak for other parts because I'm not exactly sure, but I know for sure Namibia, there's this thorny bush that's kind of spreading all over the place.

[00:15:32] It's invasive to an extent. I don't know if it's considered an actual invasive species, but it's taking over their habitats and so they're just, there's not as much open space as there was before, which is making it more difficult for them to hunt. Another one is, unfortunately the illegal pet trade.

[00:15:49] That's one that a lot of. Wild cat's face. I would say most wild cats, people look at a cheetah and you know, with everything that I've said, like they kind of act like a house cat. They sound like a house cat. People wanna try and put cheetahs in their homes, which is insane. It's crazy. And so cheetahs in particular, they do not breed well in captivity.

[00:16:13] So for the illegal pet trade with cheetahs, there's people going into the wild finding cubs, shooting the mom. So that they can get to the Cubs and then transporting them mostly to the Middle East. But people don't know how to take care of cheetahs who are in this business, and so they're crammed into these little boxes, these little crates, and most of the cheetahs that they take out of the wild don't even make it through the pet trade.

[00:16:41] And so that's a huge, huge issue. It's horrible, obviously, but. Cheetah Conservation Fund is working to stop the trade, and they actually opened up a facility in Somaliland, which is an independent break off of Somalia, and they're kind of this like perfect passageway that. You know, they're able to stop the transport of cheetahs out of Africa there.

[00:17:08] Right now they have over a hundred cubs. Like it is just nonstop. Wow. Yeah. And it's like they'll get, you know, four or six cubs at a time. And then unfortunately with that scenario, these cubs are being taken from the wild before they ever learned how to hunt from their mom. And so. We can't teach cheetahs how to hunt.

[00:17:28] And so unfortunately these cats have to be in captivity for the rest of their lives because they just won't be able to survive on their own. Yeah. Those, those are a couple of the issues.

[00:17:38] Alex Re: Yeah, I that, that's really horrible. And is there anything that we can do to kind of help with cheetah conservation?

[00:17:47] Lindsay Nikole: I mean, get involved with Cheetah Conservation Fund?

[00:17:50] I, I will. CCF is it, they have my heart, like I. I will always say, get involved with CCF. When I went there as an intern in, what was that like, my junior year of college, I was so inspired by the work that they do because they look at every single problem that she has faced and they have figured out a solution to every single one, and it's just so, it makes you feel so hopeful for the future because these are.

[00:18:21] Huge issues, you know, and they're still happening. But CCF is making a big difference in stopping them. So the habitat loss of thorny bush, they also found a solution for that, which is insane. They harvest the thorny bush. They turn it into this like, fuel log. So they have essentially created a new source of energy by also tackling this issue.

[00:18:47] Like, it's so cool. Like they, they just, they figured every, they haven't figured everything out, but they're on the way to figuring it all out. And Cheetah Conservation Fund, you can donate to them, you know, they're a nonprofit, they rely solely on donations and the, the money goes to really, really amazing solutions.

[00:19:05] Alex Re: That's, it's so awesome to hear like the exact actions that they're taking to solve these problems, because I feel like a lot of the time if you're, you know, donating to an organization, you might know, oh, they're helping cheetahs, they're helping this animal, but hearing exactly what they're doing is really amazing and it's.

[00:19:28] Great that we can support them and hopefully we, they can keep it up and keep solving those problems and even, you know, it seems like they're solving problems that. Weren't even problems in the first place, like creating a new timber source. Yeah. Which is awesome.

[00:19:42] Lindsay Nikole: Yeah, it's so cool. And you know with that they're also able to employ a ton of the local community.

[00:19:49] It's just creating a huge economic bo in that area, which is great. But yeah, I think, you know, when you usually hear about these organizations, these conservation groups, it's difficult to know where exactly your money is going. I think a lot of that just comes down to the fact that these conservation groups don't have enough resources to show you all the time where the money money is going and all the work that they're doing.

[00:20:14] And that's one thing that I'm really trying to tackle with my channel. Now. CCF inspired me in so many ways, and so in June, I ended up going back for the first time in six years and bringing my editor with me so that he could film the whole experience. And we just showed all of the different. Elements of what CCF does, and I'm hoping to make that more of a regular thing.

[00:20:36] I ended up doing that with elephants in Kenya as well. This group called Save the Elephants that are monitoring wild populations of elephants and protecting them through legislation and just awareness and tons of research in in the surrounding area. But it's definitely necessary at this point. You know, we live in an age where everything needs to be on social media and these conservation groups just.

[00:21:01] Like they're, they don't have time to figure out what the trends are of the week. Yes. That they can, you know, apply to their organization. And so I would love to figure out a way to make that more of a possibility for them. And so that's, that's my next big project and something that I'm already working on.

[00:21:19] Alex Re: That's really awesome. And social media is just the way to get that information out there these days and

[00:21:25] Lindsay Nikole: absolutely,

[00:21:26] Alex Re: you know, it can impact the lives of so many people. Could make somebody do what you did and take a leap of faith and go work for a conservation organization and then spend the rest of their lives.

[00:21:40] You know, advocating for these animals.

[00:21:42] Lindsay Nikole: Absolutely. And you know, when you get involved in work like that, even just volunteering at your local wildlife rehab center, you just have no idea what journey it's about to take you on. Because no matter what, you're gonna feel inspired, you're gonna feel like you need to keep doing something because you feel so hopeful about the work that they're doing.

[00:22:06] You might, you know, find a community of people who have these, share these same passions as you. They might refer you to a place across the country that then you decide to go work at. Like there's just so many opportunities and so much hope for where our planet is going. As long as you look for it and put effort into it, which I think is.

[00:22:29] So rewarding no matter what. You know what I mean?

[00:22:32] Alex Re: Yeah, definitely. And hope isn't always the easiest to come by these days, so it's just great to see that there is progress being made and nothing is hopeless. Like there's always something that you can do to, to make a difference.

[00:22:49] Lindsay Nikole: Absolutely. Yeah. There's always something you can do and always something to get curious about.

[00:22:57] Alex Re: Yeah, and, and I'd love to hear a little bit about your book, epic Earth.

[00:23:01] Lindsay Nikole: Yes. Yeah. So probably the epitome of me getting curious about something written into a book. So Epic Earth is a story of how life evolved over the last. Four and a half billion years on our planet, along with becoming passionate about animals in general.

[00:23:23] In college, I became passionate about knowing where the animals came from, just evolution in general and the the way our planet has evolved over billions of years. Going into it. I would say I knew a little bit about the existence of dinosaurs. I knew T-Rex was a thing, and then that was kind of it. Like I also knew about ice age animals, and that was really just from Hollywood, you know what I mean?

[00:23:50] Jurassic Park, like all that ice age. And then I started learning about things that existed before the dinosaurs. That was not a concept that I even considered before. These massive insects that, you know, dragonflies that got to. I had three foot long wingspans and millipedes that were 10 feet long and some of the earliest animals on the planet that were pretty much like an acid trip for Mother Nature.

[00:24:16] All of these different things. I, I just became so curious and I realized that while I was learning that stuff in, in my evolution classes and my paleontology classes that I took for zoology, that it was also healing this existential anxiety that I had where I was just so afraid of. Where our planet was headed in a large scale, and I noticed that learning about this deep past, this timeline of how life evolved really, really helped me calm down about it.

[00:24:50] And so I just wanted to extend that. To anybody else who didn't have the opportunity to learn that in college. Like, that's such a niche thing to learn in college. Like if you're, you know, studying marketing, you're not gonna take a paleontology class. So that's what this book is for. It's, it's the story of, you know, all of those puzzle pieces put together to create this timeline of how Jaws evolved in Phish, how.

[00:25:15] Limbs evolved in, you know, land animals and all that. Why some animals went back to the water crocodilians and stuff. And yeah, it's, it's, I I hope it's accessible to, you know, any audience who's just curious about the planet and hopefully helpful to people who are nervous about where we're headed, hopefully can provide some comfort in the same way that it did for me.

[00:25:40] Alex Re: That's great. I, I might be biased, but that sounds really cool to me. I mean, I, I am a little bit of a science nerd myself, but I mean, it just sounds so interesting. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I cannot wait to read it.

[00:25:52] Lindsay Nikole: Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I, I had a great time writing it because, you know, along with writing it, I was learning about animals.

[00:25:59] I had never heard of college, unfortunately, didn't. Uh, teach me everything, and I still have a lot to learn, but one of my favorite things about writing this book was just the research that went along with it and adding more vibrance to the timeline that I already had in my head.

[00:26:16] Alex Re: Yeah, that's great. And where can we go to help support you and your content?

[00:26:22] Lindsay Nikole: So you can check me out on YouTube. It's just my name Lindsay Nicole. Nicole is with a k. Which is a, and Lindsay is with an A L-A-N-D-S-A-Y-N-I-K-O-L-E. You can find me on Instagram TikTok with those same handles and you can get Epic Earth on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your, you know, any bookstore. Yeah.

[00:26:47] Yeah, that's where to find me.

[00:26:49] Alex Re: Awesome. All right, well everybody go check Lindsay out on YouTube. Go check out her book. That's awesome. And Lindsay, thank you so much for coming onto the podcast. I had so much fun talking with you about cheetahs and your experiences, so I appreciate you coming on.

[00:27:04] Lindsay Nikole: Thanks so much for having me.

[00:27:05] It was great to be here.

[00:27:07] Alex Re: I am so glad Lindsay was able to join me today. Her insights on cheetahs and cheetah conservation were amazing, and the work that the Cheetah Conservation Fund is doing is so valuable. One of my favorite parts of our interview was hearing about the solutions that the CCF is employing to tackle the issues that cheetahs are facing, like raising livestock, guarding dogs to help farmers, which in turn keeps cheetahs away from human populated areas and out of trouble.

[00:27:34] So you should definitely go check out the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Lindsay's new book, epic Earth. Aside from the Cheetah Conservation Fund, you should also go support the Cheetah Conservation Initiative and Pantera, which are also working hard to make sure cheetah populations are growing. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of cheetahs.

[00:27:59] You can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference@onwildlife.org. You can also email us with any questions at On Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com, and you can follow us on Instagram at On Wildlife, or on TikTok at On Wildlife. And don't forget to tune in next month for another awesome episode, and that's on Wildlife.

[00:28:29] Jess Avellino: You've been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re on Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional financial, real estate, tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.