big-cat-network:

King Cheetahs: Is their beauty worth the consequences?

written by admin Lynx

The king cheetah is a color mutation of the cheetah, causing blotches and stripes in place of their usual, uniform spots. Sometimes, they even have small “manes,” with the fur on the back of their neck and shoulder blades being longer than they tend to be on the average cheetah. At one point, they were classified as their own species, Acinonyx rex, though this was disproved in 1981 when two spotted female cheetahs gave birth to king cheetah cubs at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre in South Africa.

The king tabby mutation is recessive, meaning that both parents must possess the gene for it to show on the coat of their offspring. Due to this, only a handful are believed to exist in the wild. But of course, it did not take long for humans to take notice of these unique cheetahs and exploit them.

Read More