Cheetah were once the companions of Queens as once tamed, they do not go wild again, unlike other carnivores such as the lion and leopard. I have always wanted one for a pet.
These majestic creatures were hunted for their skins and some African tribes beleived that if you killed one with your hands and wore the skin, you were enpowered with its speed and agility.
When Andrea and his wife came to visit for a few days, we went to the de Wildt Breeding Sanctuary to see them.
At one time they were on the Endangered Willife list and a protected species. Captive cheetah do not breed well and require certain conditions in order to do so.
The breeding sanctuary was the first in SA to have success with this project and has gone on to be renowned world wide and supply many countries with cheetah again. It has to be one of my favorite success stories.
The King Cheetah, once thought to be a separate sub-species, is an African Cheetah exhibiting a rare fur pattern mutation. A recessive gene must be inherited from both parents in order for this "blotchy" pattern to appear. 
The back is almost a solid black and pictures of it can be seen and compared in the perevious posts.
Isn't it a beauty?
