Guest:
Linda Castañeda
Lead Trainer for the Cat Ambassador Program
at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
About Linda:
Linda grew up in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles but was inspired by watching David Attenborough throughout her childhood. She was immersed in nature when she attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she earned a bachelor’s in Biology. After starting her biology career in field research in Eastern Oregon and then in West Africa, she decided to meld her passions for conservation and animals by making her way into the zoo field. Linda attended the Exotic Animal Training and Management (EATM) program at Moorpark College in Moorpark, CA and found her way to the Cincinnati Zoo as an intern, then a seasonal summer hire. Linda had a brief stretch in Chicago at Lincoln Park Zoo before making her way back to Cincinnati Zoo. She spends her day working with a variety of African species, including cheetahs, servals, a porcupine, a red river hog and domestic dogs and cats. While Linda is obsessed with cheetahs, she also works with global fishing cat conservationists through the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance, where she serves on the board.
What you will learn in this Episode:
What is the Cincinnati Zoo Cat Ambassador Program, how did it start and why is it important?
What types of training does Linda and her staff do with the cheetahs?
Why do they raise baby cheetahs with dogs? How can you help?
For more information, please visit these links:
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2024/05/01/cheetahs-dogs-friends-cincinnati-zoo/73499121007/
https://cincinnatizoo.org/becoming-an-ambassador-kris-and-remus-update/
https://cincinnatizoo.org/celebrating-cathryn-hilker-on-her-90th-birthday/
Learn more about your host Lisa Desatnik, CPDT-KA, FFCP, FDM, CPBC, at
www.SoMuchPETential.com
Linda Castañeda
Lead Trainer for the Cat Ambassador Program
at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
About Linda:
Linda grew up in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles but was inspired by watching David Attenborough throughout her childhood. She was immersed in nature when she attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she earned a bachelor’s in Biology. After starting her biology career in field research in Eastern Oregon and then in West Africa, she decided to meld her passions for conservation and animals by making her way into the zoo field. Linda attended the Exotic Animal Training and Management (EATM) program at Moorpark College in Moorpark, CA and found her way to the Cincinnati Zoo as an intern, then a seasonal summer hire. Linda had a brief stretch in Chicago at Lincoln Park Zoo before making her way back to Cincinnati Zoo. She spends her day working with a variety of African species, including cheetahs, servals, a porcupine, a red river hog and domestic dogs and cats. While Linda is obsessed with cheetahs, she also works with global fishing cat conservationists through the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance, where she serves on the board.
What you will learn in this Episode:
What is the Cincinnati Zoo Cat Ambassador Program, how did it start and why is it important?
What types of training does Linda and her staff do with the cheetahs?
Why do they raise baby cheetahs with dogs? How can you help?
For more information, please visit these links:
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2024/05/01/cheetahs-dogs-friends-cincinnati-zoo/73499121007/
https://cincinnatizoo.org/becoming-an-ambassador-kris-and-remus-update/
https://cincinnatizoo.org/celebrating-cathryn-hilker-on-her-90th-birthday/
Learn more about your host Lisa Desatnik, CPDT-KA, FFCP, FDM, CPBC, at
www.SoMuchPETential.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, this is Live's Touch by Pets. I showed for
those who love and are loved by pets.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm your host, Lisa d.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Satnik, certified trainer with so much potential in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm really glad that you're here.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm thrilled to have joined me Linda Castanetta. She's the
lead trainer for our Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens Cat
Ambassador program. She spends our day working with a variety
of African species, including cheetahs, serviles, a porcupine, a red
river hog, and domestic dogs and cats. That sounds like
(00:45):
a fun day to me. I learned so much from
her when I first met her this fall, so I
thought you would enjoy learning from her as well.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So Linda's here because we really want to talk about
the Cincinnati Zoo is doing with cheetahs and cheatah isn't
dogs and it's a phenomenal program that we've got. It's
a program that has been featured on the National Geographic
In fact, a cub that I met. I'm not going
(01:17):
to say when, and I'm not gonna date myself, but
Linda mentions it later on today was featured a national
geographic and that's a really big deal. And here's another
fun fact. The voice of Goofy on Disney, which I
don't know about you, but that's a really big deal
(01:37):
being a voice of Goofy. I love Goofy. So he
created a show called a Dog's Life on Disney Plus
and it featured dogs with unusual jobs. So guess what.
He featured some of the dogs with unusual dog jobs
at the Cincinnati Zoo. Their job is to be a
(01:58):
friend to the cheetahs. How cool is that? Who wants
a job like that? I think that would be fun.
So let's get into it. Let's talk about the Cincinnati
Zoo Catabassador program, what that's all about, what your goals
are with it, and why you're raising dogs with cats.
(02:18):
Tell me about the cheetahs. So, how many cheetahs are
in the program.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Currently? We have? See, we have two boys and three girls. Nope,
we have five girls. So we have seven A quick
count in my head. So we have seven cheetahs and
they range in age from two all the way up
to sixteen, which is pretty old or a cheetah generally,
(02:46):
their lifespan is that like of a big dog, about
ten to twelve, So we keep our cheetahs their whole life,
even if they're retired from running, which is what we
primarily do with our cheetahs, we still have them in
our space and use them as ambassador animals to the
capacity at which they are interested and are physically in
(03:08):
So we let them decide what interest they have in participating,
and also their physical ability limits their participation or selects
their participation.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
One would a cheetah retire from running.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So in an African never because they would need to
every day. But what we see is that, you know,
a big male cheetah in Africa wouldn't really live past
eight and our boys one is eight and one is sixteen,
so that is pretty high up there in human care
(03:45):
because we can provide them with preventive medicine and proper nutrition.
We see that our cheetahs live long enough that we
start to see things like arthritis that we normally would
not see in a cheetah that lives in Africa because
their lifespan probably would not really allow them to get
to that point. So if we start to see any
(04:08):
medical issues or also sometimes behaviorally, we've found that some
of our males decide that they have more interest in
the females than they do in running, which is fine,
but when you have an audience of five hundred people,
they would like to see that cheetah run and not
stop to mark their territory on a tree along the way.
(04:31):
What people love watching because it's always funny. But we're
here to see cheetera run. So that means that that
male may not have as much interest in running. And
we'll still run for fun, it's not run during the
encounter when people are expecting to see a cheetah speed.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, what other things other than running would you train
the cheetah to do as part of their captivity.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Cheetos are creatures of habits, so most of their training,
and they're very shy creatures, so most of their training
when they're young is just getting used to their environment.
Get used to the door closing, get used to moving
from inside to outside, Get used to the people that
are going to be you know constantly in your environment
that you know you can trust. And then the routine,
(05:26):
So the day to day routine. And then even though
our cheetahs are all hand raised cubs and we can
go in with them and interact with them, we do
train their medical procedures what we call protective contact, so
with a barrier between us and them. So we do
train injections for annual vaccines, We train blood draw to
(05:49):
monitor their health and some of those things. We have
someone on our team who could who's been authorized by
a VAT team to give injections that those blood draws
are being done by our bet techs and since they
don't know them as well, we also want to make
sure everyone's comfortable. And that's a good behavior to train
(06:10):
protective contact where there's a barrier between the cheetah and
the bet tech to keep everyone safe and comfortable while
their blood's being drawn.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
You know, I think that's worth span just demented on
because that's such a big movement now into cooperative care
and it's such an important way for fear free handling
and medical procedures and things. And I love that zoos
are the ones that really stand out and do this
(06:41):
a lot, because you know, you're working with wild animals
that you can't just manhandle and so yeah, so when
you train a like a blood draw or you train
a medical procedure, what are you actually training the cheetah
to do? It's cooperative care.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
So we're training them to line up in position and
position we need them in and then to accept that.
You know, I guess anticipate the behavior that's going to occur,
like somebody touching their tail, pulling their tail through. You know,
they have a little tail shoots where you can put
the tail through and then the stick itself. I don't
(07:22):
think that cheetahs generally notice it. And our vet texts here,
we're very fortunate, are really good at getting a vane.
You know, on the first try. It's tough to ask
an animal to be patient for a long period of
time while your texts are trying to work out for
that veane. Is some of our cheetahs, we do a
(07:43):
little bit of a shave on their tails so that
vein to be easier to see when you're training them
also to sit still, So I need you to sit here,
let your tail be manipulated, and then just hang out
here for a few seconds to under a minute in
order for our texts to make sure they collect the
(08:04):
blood that they need.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, very very very important. I mean it's neat to see.
I encourage people if they haven't seen that to you know,
there's videos even out on YouTube and things of watching
zoos do cooperative care. I think that's fascinating. It's such
an important piece of your work. Okay, So tell me
(08:29):
about the Cat Ambassador program. What is it?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
How So it got started by a woman named Catherine
Hooker who is a local Cincinnatian, and she started outreach
at our zoo in the sixties, so taking smaller animals
out to classroom programs and to community events. And then
in nineteen eighty she got her first cheetah named Angel.
(08:56):
And I think capern always had a fascination with cheetahs,
and the more she got to know them, the more
she got to love them. And she spent many years
with Angel, who we estimates millions of people in her lifetime.
And when Angel passed in nineteen ninety two, Catherine started
(09:17):
the Angel Fund, which is a nonprofit in Angel's honor
that still today helps to save cheetahs in Africa. So
she expanded the program to include other cats for years
and years, you know, for example, she has snow leopards,
She had cougar. Actually, Angel's good friend was like Carrie
(09:38):
the cougar. We have statues outside of the cheetah encounter
of a cheetah and cougar and that's them. She's had
serviles and othlots and all kinds of different cat species,
but the cheetah has really been the signature species of
what we do and also of Katherine herself's legacy because
she did connect with doctor Wi Marker, who started Chetah
(10:01):
Conservation Fund in Namibia in Southern Africa, and Catherine and
her husband Heggy, helped support Cheetah Conservation Fund financially for
many many years while it was struggling. So I think
I personally think that she is one of the people
that helped save the cheetah, make sure the cheetah stays
(10:23):
on this planet because she provided so much support, both
personally and professionally for so many years to guarantee the
cheetah success and the Cheetah Conservation Fund success.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
She's an amazing woman. All that she did and accomplished
and the heart that she had. I was lucky enough
to have met her years years ago, and I remember
it was just a really incredible experience to get to
meet her. Then I got to meet Tommy baby CV,
(10:58):
who's still there and still your program. Is he actively
involved in the ambassador programs still.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
So Tommy is the oldest. He is going to be
sixteenth in about a week or so. So he still
goes out on walks and he still does smaller programs.
He obviously is not in our running program anymore because
he is an old man, but he's still one of
our best known cheetahs. He was in we call him
(11:27):
our centerfold because he was sort of the highlight cheetah
when we did a run with National Geographic in twenty twelve.
And so the November twenty twelve issue of National Geographic,
it has Cuba on the cover, but there's a cheetah
at the top running a photo of a cheetah, and
that cheatah is Tommy, And if you open up, there's
(11:50):
a centerfold photo of Tommy running. So he is our
most famous cheetah. Oh how cool I got to hang
out with this celebrity. I now I'm really dating myself
because I didn't know he was sixteen years.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Old, and I have a photo of him when he
was a cub, and I've showed you that picture of
him grabbing onto my pant leg and I think if
Zoo staff wasn't right there, I think my pants would
have been shredded. But that was so really a neat experience. Wow,
I did not know he was such a celebrity. That's
(12:27):
really neat.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Yeah, they are. They're adorable, but they are like young
infant toddlers. They can be quite a handful when they're little,
and they don't know their boundaries quite yet when they're small.
So manners is one of the things that we learn
as an ambassador cheetah and what's appropriate around humans, but
what is not.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
So that brings us to why the dog program and
how you started that. Why is that's so important to
raising the cheetah.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
So we do have a you call it an initiative
or a mandate. I guess you would say in zoos
that we try to provide are animals with sort of
the closest experience they would have to their natural history.
And cheetahs would always have a sibling, and they're such
(13:20):
odd animals. But one of the oddest things about them
is that a cheatah mom, if she only has one cub,
it will not survive. She always has to have two
or more. One cub doesn't stimulate enough milk production for
her and her milk will dry up help start to death.
Mom will go into estress and start over again and
(13:41):
to potentially have, hopefully have a larger litter. And that's
because she puts all the effort into them. She spends
a year and a half to two years caring for
them alone. There's a lot of work, so she has
to get you know, the most bank for her bob
or the most Mathematically speaking, it isn't worth it to
(14:03):
just have one cub. So cheetahs always have two letters
of three or more are the most successful, and that
means they always have a plamate. They always have a
other sister. Animals that are young need to practice those
skills they need into adulthood. They need to run, they
need to play, they need to jump on each other.
All those things are such important things for the development
(14:23):
of a cheetah, and they cannot do that with us.
We do not want them thinking that humans are the
appropriate thing to play with, and as much fun as
we are, we just can never duplicate the tussling of
two baby cheetah cubs. So in human care we only
have one cheetah. We will often try to foster it
(14:45):
with another mother who has cubs of the same age,
and we have been successful this year. Actually we had
a cub born in Oregon, and we had two here
in Cincinnati, so we took the one cub, just put
it in with our Cincinnati mom walked away. Mom can't count,
So now she's raising three babies. She thinks they're it's funny.
(15:08):
Everyone's happy. But when there is no other cheetah cub
and we do have to raise it ourselves, the closest
thing we can get is a puppy. So this same
method has been used in many other facilities. It's not
unique to just Cincinnati. Other places across the country have
(15:28):
done it as well. And it allows the cheetah that's
still run, played, jump, fight, hustle, all those things with
another living thing that is sort of their size and
in the same life stage as they are.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, it's such an important role then for that dog.
So how do you choose a dog for that role? Ah?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yes, the interviewing of the dog. So we we've done
various things throughout the history years past. We would choose
the Anatolian shepherd, the guard dog. It's the dog that
they use in Africa to protect livestock from predators like cheetahs.
And we chose the Anatolian because we wanted to tell
(16:16):
the conservation story, so we thought, if we take this
particular dog breed with us, then it's easy for us
to tell the story and the dogs right here as
an example. And Anatolians are really tough working dogs. If
anyone knows anything about Anatolian you would think to yourself,
why would you do that. We're not sure why we
(16:37):
did that. So once we started to see that dogs
were used in different capacity or conservation like scat detection
to dogs, we realized that we don't have to tell
the story of conservation with just the Anatolian breed. We
could tell it with the various dogs. So we then
(16:58):
started to raise the cheeseas with other dogs, and we
would go to our local shelter and find a dog
that way. Because we also want to tell the story
about dog adoption. Three of our dogs have been black
dogs because they're adopted less in shelters as well. So
(17:18):
anytime we can use the dog to tell any kind
of story about helping animals, we can go ahead and
do that. So we look for a dog that is
we think all be medium to large sized dog. We
don't want to put a chiuaha in there. Knowing that
it's not going to quite approximate the sides of our
cheetah into adulthood, we looked at for a dog that
(17:40):
is friendly to us, friendly to the other puppies in
this space. We want them to be amicable to the
cheetah though. We want them to be well mannered. We
want them to be able to listen, and we want
them to have stamina to keep up with the baby cheetah.
So in fact, it's upon one occasion there was like
a less puppies in this litter and they were all friendly,
(18:03):
and they were all nice, and they were all cute,
and we thought, oh, how are we gonna pick? And
it was me and another trainer and I said, okay,
let's play, and the last puppy standing that's our puppy,
because that's the one with the most stamina. And that's
exactly what we did. We got on the ground and
we just played the little puppy and one by one
they all fell asleep, and the last puppy standing, that's
(18:24):
the puppy we took.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
That puppy still had a lot of energy for the
for the cheetah. Yeah, those are a lot of qualities
to be looking for and a companion for a cheetah.
So did you have to do training with the dog
before you introduce them to the cheetah.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
So, because we are a zoo and the dogs come
from sort of a relatively unknown background, we do have
to quarantine the dog to make sure that we're not
passing on any kooties to our cheetah or anyone else
in our building space. So we do have to quarantine
the dog, which means it gives us an opportunity to
(19:07):
work on things like potty training. We work on the
basic behaviors Leachian collar, sitting, staying, laying down, leave. It
is a good one with the cheetah dog pair because
inevitably the dog will want to chew on the cheetah ears,
where the cheetah will want to chew on the dog ears,
and the dog will want to grab the cheetahstail and
(19:28):
drag it around by the tail. Every single cheeta dog
pair has done this, but everyone leaves with tails and
ears all put together, so it ends up being okay.
So we do have the opportunity to train that dog
the basic behaviers, but our goal with the dog is
really to be the cheetahs buddy, so we try not
(19:50):
to separate them unnecessarily we do during training. We want
the cheetah to learn to work independent of the dog.
If we have other dogs in the program, we want
the puppy to be well socialized then get to know
the other dogs so that it can not just speak cheetah,
but also know how to understand dog language and dog behavior.
(20:13):
But I will say that they probably do not have
as much training as other dogs out there because their
primary goal is really to be that cheetah's buddy.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
And they probably are getting a ton of training. It's
just different kind of training and the skills and things
that you're needing from that dog. Yeah, so there's probably
lots of lessons and parallels between having a dog is
a pet in this you know, still lots and lots
of work and how you brought them together carefully. Are
(20:46):
the dogs with the cheetahs twenty four to seven or
are they living with somebody.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So they are the initial introduction isn't It doesn't always
go as planned. I remember, for example, moose are chocolate lab.
You know it's a chocolate lab. He's really friendly, He's honey, guys,
what's going on? He goes up to the cheetah Donnie
and he's like, hey, buddy, let's be friends. And Donnie
(21:15):
just picked up his paw and just gave it to
him across the nose and just gave him a nice
big smack, and Moose was like, what did I do?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I do?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Well? What happened? You know? So the initial introduction isn't
always love at first sight. It takes a little bit
of time for them to realize that they can be
playmates and they can be buddies. So we do slow
introductions until we feel comfortable enough that they are okay
(21:43):
to be left alone together, and then we're always here
supervising them. So we do separate them at night if
they're left alone, and then we'll put them back together
as long as someone is around, and they're usually a
couple of weeks. It depends on the cheetah dog pair
how long it takes, but generally speaking, they realize suddenly
(22:05):
they're bff, and you know, they are then left alone
together twenty four to seven unless someone's eating, mostly the
cheetah because raw meat is delicious and the dog always
tries to steal the cheetahs food. Generally, the cheetahs don't
care about the dog devil, but the dogs do are
interested in getting in the raw meat. And then for
(22:28):
training is when we separate them. But once they've reached
the point where they're friends and everyone's comfortable, than they
are together twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, are the dogs because they're not raised to be like,
you know, surrounded just by people and things. Are they
when you bring them out and about are they? Are
they like family dogs too or primarily you know, because
(22:59):
the cheeta is their face family? What kind of what
do you see? Is? You know, how are they are?
There differences in raising a dog like this versus in
a home, and.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
It depends on the dog. The Anatolian Shepherds were certainly
not as social because that's it's really just not in
their nature to be social. We've had some dogs that
were incredibly social dogs that we've had when we did
a lot more school programs, you know, loved children, loved
(23:32):
being pet loved being amongst people. And then we've had
other dogs where, you know, maybe we had them over
the winter months where they didn't see as many people
and weren't exposed to as much public because we weren't
as busy, and those dogs have been a little bit
more aloof about being around the public. So it really
(23:54):
has depended upon the dog and sort of what they
spent their time doing. The Cheetah and I think also,
you know, we have this theory that some dogs are
the people dogs. Know, Moose is friendly towards others, but
he the chocolate a love, but he really wants to
just hang out where the people are, whereas Remiss, who's
(24:15):
one of our MUCKs. He's okay with people, but he'd
rather just hang out where the dogs are. So we
have the dogs that are more people dogs and the
dogs that are more dogs dogs. So it's really just
been kind of dependent. And you know, every every breed
has their sort of stereotypic personality and every individual has
(24:35):
their preference. So it's really for us. We want to
give him as many opportunities as they want to take
deep hanging out with ra Cheetah, hanging out alone, hanging
out with other dogs, hanging out with us. You know,
we figure out what their preferences and try to give
them as much as the thing that they're most interested in.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Yeah, I got the pleasure of meeting Remiss, and so
I love that they have job titles. That was fun.
So they're retiring soon these dogs. First of all, what
happens when they retire and what are you doing to
throw them a party when they retire.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
So we've always retired our dogs at about a year
and a half to two years, when cheetahs would naturally
be dispersing on their own. The cheetah is sort of
sort of becomes indifferent to the dog, like, yeah, you're there,
that's cool, you know, we're They're always sort of admlicable
to the dog, but they don't necessarily need to have
(25:40):
the dog around. So I always compare it to your
siblings growing up. You're always going to love your siblings.
Do you want to share a bedroom with your siblings
in your twenties? Probably not. You want your own space,
You're your own person. So I kind of think sort
of compared that to that sibling relationship. So you usually
(26:00):
about that time we do have adopted our dogs out
to staff members.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
We're in a.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Unique position right now. We've very rarely had three dogs,
which is what we have right now. But we feel
like it's while the cheetahs are still friendly towards them,
it's time Moose is eighth, and I think he's lived
here his full life, and for him, I think it's
time for him to sort of be a flu f
(26:30):
on the couch somewhere. Re misses five and he's still
a good boy and still likes doing programs. But I think,
also five years old, he's done. He's done his time.
He deserves to go on and live in a home.
And then Daisy is two years old. And while she's
(26:52):
still young, and she's very energetic and still does some
of our programming as well, I'm hoping to have cheetah
cubs in the near future potentially, and I think she
would also enjoy She's young enough and appliable enough that
she can learn a new environment. And generally speaking, we
(27:16):
have employees that sort of always ask when are you
retiring them, that are interested in having them.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
What are some of the things that you enjoy most
about your job? To me, it also sounds really cool.
What are some of the things that you like most.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
I think getting to know the animal's personalities is something
that's really unique. It's unique to the job to really
get to meet these animals when they're little, tiny creatures
and then see that personality develop and see it change
over time. I have one of the cheetahs, Willow. I
(27:56):
was there the day she was born. She loves sleeping,
in which I think she gets from me, but she
the days on trying to convince her, like, well, I
need you to get up, I need to clean this room,
and you know, and an hour goes by and I'm like,
my god, I've spent an hour trying to convince this
cheata to get out of bed. What am I doing?
(28:18):
What am I doing with my life? I've spent an
hour trying to coerce a cheetah to get up. But
it's fun to know that personality. It's, you know, a
common trait for Willow to decide not to get out
of bed, and good luck leaning around me everybody. So
I think that's a really fun aspect that even though
they are wild animals, they still have these unique personalities
(28:41):
and develop these likes and dislikes and sort of little
habits that they have the Other thing that's really important
to me is knowing that we do make an impact.
I've been here a long time now, and people that
were young that's all the school program as a kid
(29:01):
in school will now come up to me and say,
I remember you coming to our school, and I remember
the program and just being able to hear the impact
that it's made. I've also been really fortunate that I've
been looking to travel to Africa and I have that
first person there and of seeing the programs that we
support and the difference that it makes for the animals
(29:23):
and the people that live in that area. I've seen
Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia and to see when I
was there last summer, a cheetah, an older female cheetah,
thought it was a good idea to try to take
down a koodoo, which is a bad idea if your
female loan cheetah, because they had large horns and she
(29:46):
had this huge gash in her side, and a farmer
caught her trying to get an easy meal of goats
and sheep. And you know, in the past, that farmer
would have trapped and killed that cheetah. That would have
been the end of the story. But because of the
work Cheateadh Conservation Fund has done, that farmer trappter and
called Cheata Conservation Fund and said, come get this cheetah
(30:08):
off my land because it's injured and it's trying to
eat my goats and sheep and so cheated Conservation fund
One got her. They were able to patch up that wound,
take care of her while she healed, and then successfully
release her onto a different property in Namibia and she
(30:29):
was not an issue about farmer anymore. But she is
still out there and a while cheetah hopefully thriving in
the savannah and all of that. A lot of that
comes because of what Catherine started here and the support
that this program in the zoo continues to give. And
that's really important, impactful.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
And is phenomenal. Help people help or get involved. Can
they get involved? Are there ways that they can contribute
the time or money to the program?
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, time's a little tougher just because of sort of
the rules and the danger of working around animals. We
do have a pretty extensive intern program and volunteer program
depending on where people are in their career and in
their life. We also do have a Saving Species campaign
(31:26):
that folks can donate too as well. If you look
on our website, especially if they have a specific project
in mind, they can designate their funds to that. And
we do support chiet conservation across Africa, so it's not
just in Namibia's South Africa, and in Tanzania and Kenya
and Botswana, so there's lots of ways for folks to
(31:49):
help out and get involved. I know there have been
people who are big dog fans that want to support
the guard dog program and that support cheatah outreach in
South Africa. They also breed the guard dogs and give
those out to farmers and support the livestock Guarding Dog program.
So there's a little bit of everything for.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Everyone be able to help.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Me.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
When you go to a school and you're talking about
educating people or you're giving a show at the zoo,
in your mind like what are some of the important
things that you would like people to walk away with?
What kinds of knowledge are you trying to impart a
lot of these people.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
I think the uniqueness of the cheetah is what is amazing.
I just had this conversation with someone where there's you know,
in American zoos, we have our cheetah population here is
about two hundred. Sorry, our cheeta population here is about
three hundred and thirty individuals, and in Africa we think
it's six to eight thousand. So if you go to
(32:58):
a ball game, for example, there are more people in
that ballpark than there are cheetahs on this planet. Wow,
So it is it's a wild moment. Every cheetah is
important and needs are pair and detail and attention, and
(33:18):
I think it's it's amazing to see a cheetah do
what they can do here at the zoo. And I
think our zoo visitors are probably so used to us
having a cheetah program that we take it for granted
how truly rare it is, and we need to do
everything we can to save every cheetah anywhere on this
planet because there are so.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Few of them. Well, hopefully some people that are listening
to this too are going to take away that message
as well. So thanks for being here today. I really
really appreciate your time and helping to spread the word
about your program and about cheatdaes and the everything that
(34:00):
you do with the ambassador program. So thanks for being here.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Absolutely, we love to tell our story. Thank you for
having me and being a support for the zoo. And
I think everyone has to find that one animal that
they're passionate about and see what they can do locally
and globally to figure out how they help to support
that animal.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider
subscribing to my podcast, come back often, and tell your
friends If I can be of any help to you
and your pet. Please reach out.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
To me via my website www dot so much potential
dot com and for a lot more information, fun and videos.
Please follow me so Much Potential on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Seron
Hi, this is Live's Touch by Pets. I showed for
those who love and are loved by pets.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm your host, Lisa d.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Satnik, certified trainer with so much potential in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm really glad that you're here.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm thrilled to have joined me Linda Castanetta. She's the
lead trainer for our Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens Cat
Ambassador program. She spends our day working with a variety
of African species, including cheetahs, serviles, a porcupine, a red
river hog, and domestic dogs and cats. That sounds like
(00:45):
a fun day to me. I learned so much from
her when I first met her this fall, so I
thought you would enjoy learning from her as well.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So Linda's here because we really want to talk about
the Cincinnati Zoo is doing with cheetahs and cheatah isn't
dogs and it's a phenomenal program that we've got. It's
a program that has been featured on the National Geographic
In fact, a cub that I met. I'm not going
(01:17):
to say when, and I'm not gonna date myself, but
Linda mentions it later on today was featured a national
geographic and that's a really big deal. And here's another
fun fact. The voice of Goofy on Disney, which I
don't know about you, but that's a really big deal
(01:37):
being a voice of Goofy. I love Goofy. So he
created a show called a Dog's Life on Disney Plus
and it featured dogs with unusual jobs. So guess what.
He featured some of the dogs with unusual dog jobs
at the Cincinnati Zoo. Their job is to be a
(01:58):
friend to the cheetahs. How cool is that? Who wants
a job like that? I think that would be fun.
So let's get into it. Let's talk about the Cincinnati
Zoo Catabassador program, what that's all about, what your goals
are with it, and why you're raising dogs with cats.
(02:18):
Tell me about the cheetahs. So, how many cheetahs are
in the program.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Currently? We have? See, we have two boys and three girls. Nope,
we have five girls. So we have seven A quick
count in my head. So we have seven cheetahs and
they range in age from two all the way up
to sixteen, which is pretty old or a cheetah generally,
(02:46):
their lifespan is that like of a big dog, about
ten to twelve, So we keep our cheetahs their whole life,
even if they're retired from running, which is what we
primarily do with our cheetahs, we still have them in
our space and use them as ambassador animals to the
capacity at which they are interested and are physically in
(03:08):
So we let them decide what interest they have in participating,
and also their physical ability limits their participation or selects
their participation.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
One would a cheetah retire from running.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So in an African never because they would need to
every day. But what we see is that, you know,
a big male cheetah in Africa wouldn't really live past
eight and our boys one is eight and one is sixteen,
so that is pretty high up there in human care
(03:45):
because we can provide them with preventive medicine and proper nutrition.
We see that our cheetahs live long enough that we
start to see things like arthritis that we normally would
not see in a cheetah that lives in Africa because
their lifespan probably would not really allow them to get
to that point. So if we start to see any
(04:08):
medical issues or also sometimes behaviorally, we've found that some
of our males decide that they have more interest in
the females than they do in running, which is fine,
but when you have an audience of five hundred people,
they would like to see that cheetah run and not
stop to mark their territory on a tree along the way.
(04:31):
What people love watching because it's always funny. But we're
here to see cheetera run. So that means that that
male may not have as much interest in running. And
we'll still run for fun, it's not run during the
encounter when people are expecting to see a cheetah speed.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, what other things other than running would you train
the cheetah to do as part of their captivity.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Cheetos are creatures of habits, so most of their training,
and they're very shy creatures, so most of their training
when they're young is just getting used to their environment.
Get used to the door closing, get used to moving
from inside to outside, Get used to the people that
are going to be you know constantly in your environment
that you know you can trust. And then the routine,
(05:26):
So the day to day routine. And then even though
our cheetahs are all hand raised cubs and we can
go in with them and interact with them, we do
train their medical procedures what we call protective contact, so
with a barrier between us and them. So we do
train injections for annual vaccines, We train blood draw to
(05:49):
monitor their health and some of those things. We have
someone on our team who could who's been authorized by
a VAT team to give injections that those blood draws
are being done by our bet techs and since they
don't know them as well, we also want to make
sure everyone's comfortable. And that's a good behavior to train
(06:10):
protective contact where there's a barrier between the cheetah and
the bet tech to keep everyone safe and comfortable while
their blood's being drawn.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
You know, I think that's worth span just demented on
because that's such a big movement now into cooperative care
and it's such an important way for fear free handling
and medical procedures and things. And I love that zoos
are the ones that really stand out and do this
(06:41):
a lot, because you know, you're working with wild animals
that you can't just manhandle and so yeah, so when
you train a like a blood draw or you train
a medical procedure, what are you actually training the cheetah
to do? It's cooperative care.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
So we're training them to line up in position and
position we need them in and then to accept that.
You know, I guess anticipate the behavior that's going to occur,
like somebody touching their tail, pulling their tail through. You know,
they have a little tail shoots where you can put
the tail through and then the stick itself. I don't
(07:22):
think that cheetahs generally notice it. And our vet texts here,
we're very fortunate, are really good at getting a vane.
You know, on the first try. It's tough to ask
an animal to be patient for a long period of
time while your texts are trying to work out for
that veane. Is some of our cheetahs, we do a
(07:43):
little bit of a shave on their tails so that
vein to be easier to see when you're training them
also to sit still, So I need you to sit here,
let your tail be manipulated, and then just hang out
here for a few seconds to under a minute in
order for our texts to make sure they collect the
(08:04):
blood that they need.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, very very very important. I mean it's neat to see.
I encourage people if they haven't seen that to you know,
there's videos even out on YouTube and things of watching
zoos do cooperative care. I think that's fascinating. It's such
an important piece of your work. Okay, So tell me
(08:29):
about the Cat Ambassador program. What is it?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
How So it got started by a woman named Catherine
Hooker who is a local Cincinnatian, and she started outreach
at our zoo in the sixties, so taking smaller animals
out to classroom programs and to community events. And then
in nineteen eighty she got her first cheetah named Angel.
(08:56):
And I think capern always had a fascination with cheetahs,
and the more she got to know them, the more
she got to love them. And she spent many years
with Angel, who we estimates millions of people in her lifetime.
And when Angel passed in nineteen ninety two, Catherine started
(09:17):
the Angel Fund, which is a nonprofit in Angel's honor
that still today helps to save cheetahs in Africa. So
she expanded the program to include other cats for years
and years, you know, for example, she has snow leopards,
She had cougar. Actually, Angel's good friend was like Carrie
(09:38):
the cougar. We have statues outside of the cheetah encounter
of a cheetah and cougar and that's them. She's had
serviles and othlots and all kinds of different cat species,
but the cheetah has really been the signature species of
what we do and also of Katherine herself's legacy because
she did connect with doctor Wi Marker, who started Chetah
(10:01):
Conservation Fund in Namibia in Southern Africa, and Catherine and
her husband Heggy, helped support Cheetah Conservation Fund financially for
many many years while it was struggling. So I think
I personally think that she is one of the people
that helped save the cheetah, make sure the cheetah stays
(10:23):
on this planet because she provided so much support, both
personally and professionally for so many years to guarantee the
cheetah success and the Cheetah Conservation Fund success.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
She's an amazing woman. All that she did and accomplished
and the heart that she had. I was lucky enough
to have met her years years ago, and I remember
it was just a really incredible experience to get to
meet her. Then I got to meet Tommy baby CV,
(10:58):
who's still there and still your program. Is he actively
involved in the ambassador programs still.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
So Tommy is the oldest. He is going to be
sixteenth in about a week or so. So he still
goes out on walks and he still does smaller programs.
He obviously is not in our running program anymore because
he is an old man, but he's still one of
our best known cheetahs. He was in we call him
(11:27):
our centerfold because he was sort of the highlight cheetah
when we did a run with National Geographic in twenty twelve.
And so the November twenty twelve issue of National Geographic,
it has Cuba on the cover, but there's a cheetah
at the top running a photo of a cheetah, and
that cheatah is Tommy, And if you open up, there's
(11:50):
a centerfold photo of Tommy running. So he is our
most famous cheetah. Oh how cool I got to hang
out with this celebrity. I now I'm really dating myself
because I didn't know he was sixteen years.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Old, and I have a photo of him when he
was a cub, and I've showed you that picture of
him grabbing onto my pant leg and I think if
Zoo staff wasn't right there, I think my pants would
have been shredded. But that was so really a neat experience. Wow,
I did not know he was such a celebrity. That's
(12:27):
really neat.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Yeah, they are. They're adorable, but they are like young
infant toddlers. They can be quite a handful when they're little,
and they don't know their boundaries quite yet when they're small.
So manners is one of the things that we learn
as an ambassador cheetah and what's appropriate around humans, but
what is not.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
So that brings us to why the dog program and
how you started that. Why is that's so important to
raising the cheetah.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
So we do have a you call it an initiative
or a mandate. I guess you would say in zoos
that we try to provide are animals with sort of
the closest experience they would have to their natural history.
And cheetahs would always have a sibling, and they're such
(13:20):
odd animals. But one of the oddest things about them
is that a cheatah mom, if she only has one cub,
it will not survive. She always has to have two
or more. One cub doesn't stimulate enough milk production for
her and her milk will dry up help start to death.
Mom will go into estress and start over again and
(13:41):
to potentially have, hopefully have a larger litter. And that's
because she puts all the effort into them. She spends
a year and a half to two years caring for
them alone. There's a lot of work, so she has
to get you know, the most bank for her bob
or the most Mathematically speaking, it isn't worth it to
(14:03):
just have one cub. So cheetahs always have two letters
of three or more are the most successful, and that
means they always have a plamate. They always have a
other sister. Animals that are young need to practice those
skills they need into adulthood. They need to run, they
need to play, they need to jump on each other.
All those things are such important things for the development
(14:23):
of a cheetah, and they cannot do that with us.
We do not want them thinking that humans are the
appropriate thing to play with, and as much fun as
we are, we just can never duplicate the tussling of
two baby cheetah cubs. So in human care we only
have one cheetah. We will often try to foster it
(14:45):
with another mother who has cubs of the same age,
and we have been successful this year. Actually we had
a cub born in Oregon, and we had two here
in Cincinnati, so we took the one cub, just put
it in with our Cincinnati mom walked away. Mom can't count,
So now she's raising three babies. She thinks they're it's funny.
(15:08):
Everyone's happy. But when there is no other cheetah cub
and we do have to raise it ourselves, the closest
thing we can get is a puppy. So this same
method has been used in many other facilities. It's not
unique to just Cincinnati. Other places across the country have
(15:28):
done it as well. And it allows the cheetah that's
still run, played, jump, fight, hustle, all those things with
another living thing that is sort of their size and
in the same life stage as they are.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, it's such an important role then for that dog.
So how do you choose a dog for that role? Ah?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yes, the interviewing of the dog. So we we've done
various things throughout the history years past. We would choose
the Anatolian shepherd, the guard dog. It's the dog that
they use in Africa to protect livestock from predators like cheetahs.
And we chose the Anatolian because we wanted to tell
(16:16):
the conservation story, so we thought, if we take this
particular dog breed with us, then it's easy for us
to tell the story and the dogs right here as
an example. And Anatolians are really tough working dogs. If
anyone knows anything about Anatolian you would think to yourself,
why would you do that. We're not sure why we
(16:37):
did that. So once we started to see that dogs
were used in different capacity or conservation like scat detection
to dogs, we realized that we don't have to tell
the story of conservation with just the Anatolian breed. We
could tell it with the various dogs. So we then
(16:58):
started to raise the cheeseas with other dogs, and we
would go to our local shelter and find a dog
that way. Because we also want to tell the story
about dog adoption. Three of our dogs have been black
dogs because they're adopted less in shelters as well. So
(17:18):
anytime we can use the dog to tell any kind
of story about helping animals, we can go ahead and
do that. So we look for a dog that is
we think all be medium to large sized dog. We
don't want to put a chiuaha in there. Knowing that
it's not going to quite approximate the sides of our
cheetah into adulthood, we looked at for a dog that
(17:40):
is friendly to us, friendly to the other puppies in
this space. We want them to be amicable to the
cheetah though. We want them to be well mannered. We
want them to be able to listen, and we want
them to have stamina to keep up with the baby cheetah.
So in fact, it's upon one occasion there was like
a less puppies in this litter and they were all friendly,
(18:03):
and they were all nice, and they were all cute,
and we thought, oh, how are we gonna pick? And
it was me and another trainer and I said, okay,
let's play, and the last puppy standing that's our puppy,
because that's the one with the most stamina. And that's
exactly what we did. We got on the ground and
we just played the little puppy and one by one
they all fell asleep, and the last puppy standing, that's
(18:24):
the puppy we took.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
That puppy still had a lot of energy for the
for the cheetah. Yeah, those are a lot of qualities
to be looking for and a companion for a cheetah.
So did you have to do training with the dog
before you introduce them to the cheetah.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
So, because we are a zoo and the dogs come
from sort of a relatively unknown background, we do have
to quarantine the dog to make sure that we're not
passing on any kooties to our cheetah or anyone else
in our building space. So we do have to quarantine
the dog, which means it gives us an opportunity to
(19:07):
work on things like potty training. We work on the
basic behaviors Leachian collar, sitting, staying, laying down, leave. It
is a good one with the cheetah dog pair because
inevitably the dog will want to chew on the cheetah ears,
where the cheetah will want to chew on the dog ears,
and the dog will want to grab the cheetahstail and
(19:28):
drag it around by the tail. Every single cheeta dog
pair has done this, but everyone leaves with tails and
ears all put together, so it ends up being okay.
So we do have the opportunity to train that dog
the basic behaviers, but our goal with the dog is
really to be the cheetahs buddy, so we try not
(19:50):
to separate them unnecessarily we do during training. We want
the cheetah to learn to work independent of the dog.
If we have other dogs in the program, we want
the puppy to be well socialized then get to know
the other dogs so that it can not just speak cheetah,
but also know how to understand dog language and dog behavior.
(20:13):
But I will say that they probably do not have
as much training as other dogs out there because their
primary goal is really to be that cheetah's buddy.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
And they probably are getting a ton of training. It's
just different kind of training and the skills and things
that you're needing from that dog. Yeah, so there's probably
lots of lessons and parallels between having a dog is
a pet in this you know, still lots and lots
of work and how you brought them together carefully. Are
(20:46):
the dogs with the cheetahs twenty four to seven or
are they living with somebody.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So they are the initial introduction isn't It doesn't always
go as planned. I remember, for example, moose are chocolate lab.
You know it's a chocolate lab. He's really friendly, He's honey, guys,
what's going on? He goes up to the cheetah Donnie
and he's like, hey, buddy, let's be friends. And Donnie
(21:15):
just picked up his paw and just gave it to
him across the nose and just gave him a nice
big smack, and Moose was like, what did I do?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I do?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Well? What happened? You know? So the initial introduction isn't
always love at first sight. It takes a little bit
of time for them to realize that they can be
playmates and they can be buddies. So we do slow
introductions until we feel comfortable enough that they are okay
(21:43):
to be left alone together, and then we're always here
supervising them. So we do separate them at night if
they're left alone, and then we'll put them back together
as long as someone is around, and they're usually a
couple of weeks. It depends on the cheetah dog pair
how long it takes, but generally speaking, they realize suddenly
(22:05):
they're bff, and you know, they are then left alone
together twenty four to seven unless someone's eating, mostly the
cheetah because raw meat is delicious and the dog always
tries to steal the cheetahs food. Generally, the cheetahs don't
care about the dog devil, but the dogs do are
interested in getting in the raw meat. And then for
(22:28):
training is when we separate them. But once they've reached
the point where they're friends and everyone's comfortable, than they
are together twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, are the dogs because they're not raised to be like,
you know, surrounded just by people and things. Are they
when you bring them out and about are they? Are
they like family dogs too or primarily you know, because
(22:59):
the cheeta is their face family? What kind of what
do you see? Is? You know, how are they are?
There differences in raising a dog like this versus in
a home, and.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
It depends on the dog. The Anatolian Shepherds were certainly
not as social because that's it's really just not in
their nature to be social. We've had some dogs that
were incredibly social dogs that we've had when we did
a lot more school programs, you know, loved children, loved
(23:32):
being pet loved being amongst people. And then we've had
other dogs where, you know, maybe we had them over
the winter months where they didn't see as many people
and weren't exposed to as much public because we weren't
as busy, and those dogs have been a little bit
more aloof about being around the public. So it really
(23:54):
has depended upon the dog and sort of what they
spent their time doing. The Cheetah and I think also,
you know, we have this theory that some dogs are
the people dogs. Know, Moose is friendly towards others, but
he the chocolate a love, but he really wants to
just hang out where the people are, whereas Remiss, who's
(24:15):
one of our MUCKs. He's okay with people, but he'd
rather just hang out where the dogs are. So we
have the dogs that are more people dogs and the
dogs that are more dogs dogs. So it's really just
been kind of dependent. And you know, every every breed
has their sort of stereotypic personality and every individual has
(24:35):
their preference. So it's really for us. We want to
give him as many opportunities as they want to take
deep hanging out with ra Cheetah, hanging out alone, hanging
out with other dogs, hanging out with us. You know,
we figure out what their preferences and try to give
them as much as the thing that they're most interested in.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Yeah, I got the pleasure of meeting Remiss, and so
I love that they have job titles. That was fun.
So they're retiring soon these dogs. First of all, what
happens when they retire and what are you doing to
throw them a party when they retire.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
So we've always retired our dogs at about a year
and a half to two years, when cheetahs would naturally
be dispersing on their own. The cheetah is sort of
sort of becomes indifferent to the dog, like, yeah, you're there,
that's cool, you know, we're They're always sort of admlicable
to the dog, but they don't necessarily need to have
(25:40):
the dog around. So I always compare it to your
siblings growing up. You're always going to love your siblings.
Do you want to share a bedroom with your siblings
in your twenties? Probably not. You want your own space,
You're your own person. So I kind of think sort
of compared that to that sibling relationship. So you usually
(26:00):
about that time we do have adopted our dogs out
to staff members.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
We're in a.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Unique position right now. We've very rarely had three dogs,
which is what we have right now. But we feel
like it's while the cheetahs are still friendly towards them,
it's time Moose is eighth, and I think he's lived
here his full life, and for him, I think it's
time for him to sort of be a flu f
(26:30):
on the couch somewhere. Re misses five and he's still
a good boy and still likes doing programs. But I think,
also five years old, he's done. He's done his time.
He deserves to go on and live in a home.
And then Daisy is two years old. And while she's
(26:52):
still young, and she's very energetic and still does some
of our programming as well, I'm hoping to have cheetah
cubs in the near future potentially, and I think she
would also enjoy She's young enough and appliable enough that
she can learn a new environment. And generally speaking, we
(27:16):
have employees that sort of always ask when are you
retiring them, that are interested in having them.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
What are some of the things that you enjoy most
about your job? To me, it also sounds really cool.
What are some of the things that you like most.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
I think getting to know the animal's personalities is something
that's really unique. It's unique to the job to really
get to meet these animals when they're little, tiny creatures
and then see that personality develop and see it change
over time. I have one of the cheetahs, Willow. I
(27:56):
was there the day she was born. She loves sleeping,
in which I think she gets from me, but she
the days on trying to convince her, like, well, I
need you to get up, I need to clean this room,
and you know, and an hour goes by and I'm like,
my god, I've spent an hour trying to convince this
cheata to get out of bed. What am I doing?
(28:18):
What am I doing with my life? I've spent an
hour trying to coerce a cheetah to get up. But
it's fun to know that personality. It's, you know, a
common trait for Willow to decide not to get out
of bed, and good luck leaning around me everybody. So
I think that's a really fun aspect that even though
they are wild animals, they still have these unique personalities
(28:41):
and develop these likes and dislikes and sort of little
habits that they have the Other thing that's really important
to me is knowing that we do make an impact.
I've been here a long time now, and people that
were young that's all the school program as a kid
(29:01):
in school will now come up to me and say,
I remember you coming to our school, and I remember
the program and just being able to hear the impact
that it's made. I've also been really fortunate that I've
been looking to travel to Africa and I have that
first person there and of seeing the programs that we
support and the difference that it makes for the animals
(29:23):
and the people that live in that area. I've seen
Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia and to see when I
was there last summer, a cheetah, an older female cheetah,
thought it was a good idea to try to take
down a koodoo, which is a bad idea if your
female loan cheetah, because they had large horns and she
(29:46):
had this huge gash in her side, and a farmer
caught her trying to get an easy meal of goats
and sheep. And you know, in the past, that farmer
would have trapped and killed that cheetah. That would have
been the end of the story. But because of the
work Cheateadh Conservation Fund has done, that farmer trappter and
called Cheata Conservation Fund and said, come get this cheetah
(30:08):
off my land because it's injured and it's trying to
eat my goats and sheep and so cheated Conservation fund
One got her. They were able to patch up that wound,
take care of her while she healed, and then successfully
release her onto a different property in Namibia and she
(30:29):
was not an issue about farmer anymore. But she is
still out there and a while cheetah hopefully thriving in
the savannah and all of that. A lot of that
comes because of what Catherine started here and the support
that this program in the zoo continues to give. And
that's really important, impactful.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
And is phenomenal. Help people help or get involved. Can
they get involved? Are there ways that they can contribute
the time or money to the program?
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, time's a little tougher just because of sort of
the rules and the danger of working around animals. We
do have a pretty extensive intern program and volunteer program
depending on where people are in their career and in
their life. We also do have a Saving Species campaign
(31:26):
that folks can donate too as well. If you look
on our website, especially if they have a specific project
in mind, they can designate their funds to that. And
we do support chiet conservation across Africa, so it's not
just in Namibia's South Africa, and in Tanzania and Kenya
and Botswana, so there's lots of ways for folks to
(31:49):
help out and get involved. I know there have been
people who are big dog fans that want to support
the guard dog program and that support cheatah outreach in
South Africa. They also breed the guard dogs and give
those out to farmers and support the livestock Guarding Dog program.
So there's a little bit of everything for.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Everyone be able to help.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Me.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
When you go to a school and you're talking about
educating people or you're giving a show at the zoo,
in your mind like what are some of the important
things that you would like people to walk away with?
What kinds of knowledge are you trying to impart a
lot of these people.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
I think the uniqueness of the cheetah is what is amazing.
I just had this conversation with someone where there's you know,
in American zoos, we have our cheetah population here is
about two hundred. Sorry, our cheeta population here is about
three hundred and thirty individuals, and in Africa we think
it's six to eight thousand. So if you go to
(32:58):
a ball game, for example, there are more people in
that ballpark than there are cheetahs on this planet. Wow,
So it is it's a wild moment. Every cheetah is
important and needs are pair and detail and attention, and
(33:18):
I think it's it's amazing to see a cheetah do
what they can do here at the zoo. And I
think our zoo visitors are probably so used to us
having a cheetah program that we take it for granted
how truly rare it is, and we need to do
everything we can to save every cheetah anywhere on this
planet because there are so.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Few of them. Well, hopefully some people that are listening
to this too are going to take away that message
as well. So thanks for being here today. I really
really appreciate your time and helping to spread the word
about your program and about cheatdaes and the everything that
(34:00):
you do with the ambassador program. So thanks for being here.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Absolutely, we love to tell our story. Thank you for
having me and being a support for the zoo. And
I think everyone has to find that one animal that
they're passionate about and see what they can do locally
and globally to figure out how they help to support
that animal.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider
subscribing to my podcast, come back often, and tell your
friends If I can be of any help to you
and your pet. Please reach out.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
To me via my website www dot so much potential
dot com and for a lot more information, fun and videos.
Please follow me so Much Potential on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Seron
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