Skins, mounts and skulls of animals of confirmed wild origin are required for an historic DNA analysis which will study development in relation to geography all the way from the African Cape to the steppes of Russia. Specimens must be from pre-1970 as they provide source material from a time before serious game management of wild places or cheetah captive-breeding.
Working with the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, dramatic results of the first stage of the study show that Asiatic cheetahs are unambiguously separated from Africa’s. This has given impetus to include samples of more of Africa’s cheetah races, including the wild King Cheetah.
Zimbabwe is a key geographic area in the study, but the researchers are battling to get any worthwhile feedback from the authorities there, and have asked The Zimbabwean to appeal to readers for help.
They need the names and contact details of private individuals who’d be willing to assist with a tiny sample of tissue from a cheetah trophy, as well as key contacts for official bodies such as the Harare and Bulawayo Museums; Parks and Wildlife department (for any confiscated poached cheetah material they’d consider giving us access to); and any known storage facility that holds travelled / smuggled cheetah contraband long ago seized by customs, notably in border areas with Mozambique and Zambia.
“All we want to know by way of “history” is a rough place of origin for the specimen, its approximate date of acquisition, and permission to unobtrusively take a tiny 1.5 cm piece of skin (only from a hidden area) or a bone shred from inside the nasal cavity in a skull. We would undertake the sampling in person, strictly for verification purposes to ensure all is bona fide, photographing the task as a visual cross-reference and unquestionable proof of source-sample authenticity,” said Léna Godsall Bottriell, a wildlife field researcher. – If you can help please contact lenagod@king-cheetah.freeserve.co.uk
Post published in: World News