San Diego Zoo Global Joins Cheetah Breeding Coalition

San Diego Zoo Global Joins Cheetah Breeding Coalition

National Coalition Includes Eight Other Organizations

     Noka, a 13-year-old male cheetah, is perched in a tree investigating the exhibit of a female cheetah. This is one of the first steps in introducing male and female cheetahs for breeding. Noka is one of 16 cheetahs in an off-exhibit breeding facility at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.


     San Diego Zoo Global, which has been breeding cheetahs for more than 40 years, yielding more than 130 cubs, has recently joined the national cheetah Breeding Center Coalition (BCC) to create a sustainable cheetah population that will prevent extinction of the world’s fastest land animal. In addition to the nine breeding facilities, it is expected that more than 100 other organizations accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that already house cheetahs will also join this coalition in a nonbreeding capacity.

     The nine-member coalition’s goal is to achieve a sustainable zoo population of cheetahs within 10 years. To achieve this goal, the facilities have set a target of 15 cheetah cub litters to be born each year. A typical cheetah litter has about three cubs, which would total 45 cubs per year among the nine breeding centers.