Cheetah Project

Critiques [Translate]

•  
• fragman (17609)
• [2008-08-14 13:10]

great capture, they look so much attached, TFS Ori

•  
• tuslaw (4831)
• [2008-08-14 20:36]
• [+]

Robin,
I only wish all my photos were as you put it (Not so good)
I think this is a great shot of this mother and cub. It shows the bond these two share as the mother keeps a watchful eye out while protecting her young.
Your photo also includes the grasses in which the cheetahs coats blend into so beautifully. No wonder they can lay undetected as they wait on their prey. Well done!!
Ron

•  
• Argus (34981)
• [2008-08-15 9:34]

Hello Robin,
Both the parent and the cub are caught in a fine pose, especially the cub behind the mother's tail. The features, including the radio antenna are seen clearly despite the slight softness of teh image and teh composition is great.
TFs this fine image and interesting note,
Ivan

•  
• vmukherjee (1331)
• [2008-08-15 9:37]

Nice shot. Cheetah is one animal which I wud very much like to see with my own eyes. Their body structure, built for extreme speed, beauty, all amazes me. Thanks for sharing. Cheetah photos are not that common in TN.

•  
• cako (3213)
• [2008-08-15 12:50]

Hi Robin very nice image
very well done.

•  
• Evelynn (14396)
• [2008-08-15 20:55]

I like the interlocked pose of these two. It's really a nice capture. It is always a little disappointing to see the radio collars on wild animals but it is necessary to save them I suppose.

TFS
Evelynn : )

•  
• BobH (638)
• [2009-04-07 9:00]

Robin-

An excellent shot because you captured it and posted it. We would be poorer if you had waited for perfect conditions without seeing them, then had no image at all to show.

Cheetahs are known to have suffered a population bottleneck several thousand years ago, leading to possible problems due to their inbred population genetics. My recent posts on elephant seals bear the same concern, though the animals are not so warm and fuzzy and appealing as cheetahs to our biased human eyes.

These two species are not the only ones we should be concerned about. The following text from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_bottleneck) covers the bottleneck issue and has deeper references for anyone so inclined:

"A classic example of a population bottleneck is that of the Northern Elephant Seals, whose population fell to about 30 in the 1890s although it now numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Another example are Cheetahs, which are so closely related to each other that skin grafts from one cheetah to another do not provoke immune responses, thus suggesting an extreme population bottleneck in the past. Another largely bottlenecked species is the Golden Hamster, of which the vast majority are descended from a single litter found in the Syrian desert around 1930."

Population bottlenecks are an issue that conservationists will increasingly confront as human population pressure on wildlife habitat continues to mount. Biologists know that the concept of biodiversity in the mind of the public should also include intra-species diversity, not just inter-species. This concept has taken hold in parts of the agricultural world in the past 20-30 years, but it's not so prominent in our thinking about wildlife. It would benefit us all for TN members to try and educate others on this concept, since the mass media seem to have no clue the issue even exists.

Please excuse the long comment. Thanks again for the nice cheetahs.

Bob