Thursday 29 May 2008
King Cheetah Pictures
Photo reproduced under creative commons license copyright moo sa - Female king cheetah at Tshukudu Game Lodge S. Africa.
King Cheetah Pictures are popular because this is a very rare wild cat. It was thought that the king cheetah was a different species of big wild cat (back in the 1920s when they were first noticed) but it is now know for sure that the distinctly different pattern (more marbled than the pure spotted pattern of the cheetah we are familiar with) is due a simple naturally occurring genetic mutation.
Genetic mutation are quite routine and have been seized upon by domestic cat breeders to create new cat breeds. Typical examples are the American Curl, the rex cats such as the LaPerm and the rarer dwarf cats; there are others. See them all on the main website Picture of Cats.
Photo copyright jurvetson - note: I am not sure that this Flickr photographer has the copyright to this photo - sorry but I think that I have seen it elsewhere. If I am wrong I apologize and please tell me.
There been few live sightings of the King Cheetah and most evidence of this cat's existence comes from skins and stuffed cats etc., pretty disgusting for me, a cat and wild life lover. As far as I remember there is evidence of about 38 king cheetahs since the 1930s or there abouts. Extremely low numbers but of course more could have existed but not seen. They seem, now, to be confined to game reserves and the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust breed this cat.
I prepared a page on this cat on the main website where there is more detail and a large format quality picture as well.
Photo copyright coschda
The pictures in this posting are from amateur Flickr photographers. Thanks for sharing them under the creative commons license that you grant.
King Cheetah Pictures to Cheetah habitat
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Featured Post
i hate cats
i hate cats, no i hate f**k**g cats is what some people say when they dislike cats. But they nearly always don't explain why. It appe...
Popular posts
-
The big Maine Coon cat (MC) is very impressive and the biggest purely domestic cat in the world (I am excluding the wildcat hybrids ) but no...
-
Photo of Nebelung Cat Lovenblues Mozart Bronikowski copyright © Helmi Flick – please respect copyright. The Nebelung has a medi...
-
Russian Blue Kitten photograph by Sensual Shadows Photography Before you go in search of Russian Blue Kittens have a look at these and h...
Great Pics! Do you know if King Cheetah still occur naturally in the wild or are they all in captivity?
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for your comment. I think the answer is that there is no evidence that this cat is in existence in the wild.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Michael
I think cheetahs are an amazing, majestic big cat. In fact, it is my favorite big cat. They are so graceful and elegant. When I see them on t.v., the first thing I notice besides the speed is their intelligence and strength
ReplyDelete