Science and Nature

LOS ANGELES — It may sound like a West Side Story-style love story, but some dogs love big cats.

Cheetahs are the fastest mammals in the world, but they also are the world's biggest scaredy-cats — so much so that they don't breed easily and are in danger of going extinct.

Some zoos are introducing dogs to calm the skittish cats and bring attention to their plight. They're pairing "companion dogs" with some cheetahs to serve as playmates and to provide the cats with guidance.

"It's a love story of one species helping another species survive," said Jack Grisham, vice president of animal collections at the St. Louis Zoo and species survival plan coordinator for cheetahs in North America.

Or, to quote Stephen Stills, it's a matter of loving the one you're with, he said.

"It is all about comforting and reassuring the cheetah," said Janet Rose-Hinostroza, animal training supervisor at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park — the top U.S. breeder of cheetahs in captivity. In the past 40 years, 135 cheetahs have been born at the park's breeding facility.

The cheetahs most often found at zoos and wildlife parks are not considered good breeding candidates, they don't relate well to other cheetahs, or they are abandoned by their mothers, Rose-Hinostroza said. But they seem to take easily to companion dogs and look to the dogs for play and example.

Of the 19 cheetahs at Safari Park, four have dogs. Four of the zoo's cheetahs also have dogs.

The dogs, usually from animal shelters, and cheetah pups generally are introduced when they are about 3 months old.

"In this relationship, the dog is dominant, but we look for dogs that want to be a buddy," Rose-Hinostroza said. "The dog always has the cat's back, but it's never the other way around. Dogs worry about their cats. They protect their cats."

One of the most popular draws at Safari Park is the 100-meter cheetah run where the public gets to see firsthand the speed of "nature's perfect sprinter."

"Speed is incredibly important. It is their survival technique, in a nutshell," Rose-Hinostroza said. "If they can't run, they won't survive. They are not equipped to be confrontational."

A cheetah's claws don't retract, so they have footing that takes them from "zero to 60 in 3.4 seconds," she said.

"That's faster than every single car on the market, and it only takes three steps," Rose-Hinostroza said.

Cheetahs use their tails like a rotor to balance while they are running. Their top speed is 60 to 70 mph, based on size, but they can run that fast only for 20 or 30 seconds. Extending that to a minute or more puts the animal in serious jeopardy of death.

"Overexertion, heat exhaustion can literally cook their organs at that speed," Rose-Hinostroza said. She added the average cheetah chase in the wild is 200 to 300 meters.

Safari Park's cheetahs chase a lure for 100 meters, a sprint that seldom exceeds 6 seconds.

A century ago there were 100,000 cheetahs in the wild, Grisham said. Today there are fewer than 12,000. The species has become extinct in at least 13 countries. There are about 280 captive cheetahs in zoos across the United States.

As captive efforts to save the species continue, Grisham worries there is no wild to send them home to because habitat is being swallowed up by developers and poachers are killing the cats for their fur.

Cheetahs live 12 to 15 years in captivity. Males weigh 120 to 150 pounds, and females 100 to 120 pounds.

The dogs come in all sizes. At Safari Park, the smallest and sweetest is Hopper, a male mutt who weighs 40 pounds. He's teamed with Amara, the toughest female cheetah on the team, Rose-Hinostroza said.

Cheetah females don't go into heat like other cats. Instead, they have to be brought into estrus by a male cheetah, the experts explained. That's why breeding is so hard — because they aren't social animals, they live independently, and they seldom hang out with one another.

Although the dogs and cats live together, they are not always with one another. Dogs have play dates with other dogs and humans. Mealtimes always are spent apart. The dogs eat kibble, and the cheetahs eat steak.

"The dogs are the bosses in these relationships," Rose-Hinostroza said. "If they ate together there would be one really fat dog and a really skinny cheetah."

One of Safari Park's dogs — the only non-shelter dog — is Yeti, an Anatolian shepherd. She works with two cheetahs — Johari and her brother Shiley.

No one is sure when the idea of cheetah dogs started, but Anatolian shepherds helped advance it. The San Diego Zoo was given a pair of cheetahs in 1981 on the condition they be given dogs because they were used to them.

A few decades ago, Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in the southern African nation of Namibia, brought Anatolian shepherds from Turkey and raised them to protect area goat herds.

"The Anatolian shepherd weighs up to 150 pounds and isn't afraid of anything," Grisham said. "They'll square off against lions and leopards. They don't always win, but they are very protective.

"Marker gave the dogs to farmers to protect their herds," Grisham said. When cheetahs came looking for dinner, the dogs scared the cats away and saved the farmer's goats. At the same time, the dogs saved the cats from being killed by the farmers. There was plenty of other food in the wild for the cats, including gazelles, impalas, springhares, birds, warthogs, kudu and hartebeest.

The dogs have helped cheetah conservation in Africa. "For the first time in 30 years, the cheetah population in the wild is on the rise because ranchers don't have to shoot them anymore. They don't need to shoot them. The dog is that effective at keeping the cheetah away from the herd," Rose-Hinostroza said.

Not every zoo that breeds cheetahs uses dogs. The St. Louis Zoo, where Grisham is based, has seven cheetahs but does not use dogs. More than 30 cubs have been born at that zoo.

Visitors can still watch the skittish cats and learn what all the fuss is about, Grisham said.

"It helps us understand the plight of animals in nature. In Africa, cheetahs were treated as vermin for years, like people in the United States treat coyotes," Grisham said.

Reference:

Shelter Dogs Help Cheetahs Survive

The nervous cheetahs who need a canine companion to get them relaxed enough to breed

The Greyhound is a very old breed of dog, a sighthound which has been historically bred for coursing game and latterly Greyhound racing. Since the rise in large scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, particularly in North America from the end of the 20th century, it has seen a resurgence in popularity as a family pet. 

History:

The breed's origin has in popular literature often romantically been connected to Ancient Egypt, in which it is believed "that the breed dates back about 4,000 years " a belief for which there is no scientific evidence. While similar in appearance to Saluki (Persian Greyhound) or Sloughi (tombs at Beni Hassan c. 2000 BCE), analyses of DNA reported in 2004 suggest that the Greyhound may not be closely related to these breeds, but is a close relative to herding dogs. Historical literature on the first sighthound in Europe (Arrian), the vertragus, the probable antecedent of the Greyhound, suggests that the origin is with the ancient Celts from Eastern Europe or Eurasia. Greyhound-type dogs of small, medium, and large size, would appear to have been bred across Europe since that time. All modern, pure-bred pedigree Greyhounds are derived from the Greyhound stock recorded and registered, firstly in the private 18th century, then public 19th century studbooks, which ultimately were registered with coursing, racing, and kennel club authorities of the United Kingdom. [Source1, Source 2, Source 3]

Appearance:

The greyhound has a graceful, strong muscled, deep-chested, narrow-waisted, streamlined body. While running its long tail acts as a keel and the ears can fold toward the neck. Males can measure between up to 30”, weighing up to 70 lbs.
The greyhound has his eyes well positioned at the sides of his head giving him a far wider field of view than other dogs (270 degrees versus 180 degrees.) They are sight hounds and can spot movement up to half a mile away.

Behavior:

Greyhounds are calm and social indoors and are often referred to as couch potatoes. Although greyhounds are possibly the most athletic of all domestic dogs they do not necessarily need a lot of exercise. Two 20 minute walks a day will usually suffice.  A high fenced garden is advised as they are great jumpers. Greyhounds are fairly easy to train and can learn almost all commands. However, they must never be allowed off leash in public places, as it is in their natures to chase anything that moves and may choose to totally ignore you if they have their eyes set on a prey.
They are affectionate with their families although can be aloof with strangers. They normally get on well with other dogs in the household but cat owners should exercise caution although many are said to tolerate or even take to cats or small dogs. Because of their nature as sprinters, greyhounds have relatively low endurance and their conditioning need to be slowly build up if you’d like to take him jogging.
Greyhounds rarely bark. The joke goes that greyhounds are good watchdogs: they watch thieves carry your stuff away. They are relatively small eaters and will therefore not cost a lot to feed. Grooming is very easy, a good brush once a week is enough. They don’t have much body odor but like most short haired dogs do shed a little.
I always had a thing for eyes. Cat eyes always fascinated me. I always wondered what the cats were thinking. Dog eyes were the best of all. My first dog, Tango, had dancing eyes. My Doberman, Ariel, possessed the saddest eyes I had ever seen. Then the first pair of greyhound eyes came along. Sultan had big “Bambi” eyes and classic greyhound eyeliner. His eyes said, “Love me.” Those eyes communicated better than any spoken words over the years.
Here I am, an owner of sight hounds. I got to thinking: what makes sight hounds sight hounds? They are hounds that hunt by sight. That means their gorgeous eyes are pretty important.

The eye is an organ with several parts

The eyeball rests in a cushion of fat that protects it in its bony socket. Seven muscles attach to the eyeball. They stabilize the eye and govern its movements. When you look at a dog’s eye, one of the first parts you will notice is the sclera. The sclera is the white area that rims most of the eye’s surface. The dog’s sclera is much less evident then a human’s sclera. Most of the dog’s eye has pigment. The pigment is in the iris, which is a layer of smooth muscle that controls the size of the pupil. Both the iris and the pupil have a cover that is a layer of thick transparent cells. These transparent cells are the cornea, or “window of the eye.”

The inner eye has two chambers. 

The anterior chamber is between the cornea and the lens. The posterior contains a clear jelly and is the larger central cavity of the eye between the lens and the retina. Light enters the eye by passing first through the cornea and anterior chamber and then through the pupil and the lens. The iris expands and contracts, depending upon the brightness of the light. Light then traverses the posterior chamber and the retina receives it. The light converts into nerve impulses that pass via the optic nerve to the brain.
The eye’s anatomy is similar in mammals. However, its functional capabilities vary greatly among the species. A dog’s eyes are towards the front of its head and are unable to see behind it. This is true of most predatory species. Prey species such as deer and antelopes have their eyes fixed on the sides of their heads. In some breeds, such as the sighthound breeds, the total field of vision is 270 degrees. This is 70 degrees greater than that of humans whose visual field is about 180 degrees. The average dog has a visual field of about 250 degrees. Flat faced breeds such as pugs have a little less. Therefore, sighthounds with their narrow heads can detect small movements over a much greater slice of landscape. If we are out walking and a cat is running some distance away, sighthounds will react and notice it much more quickly than a person would.
We can be walking on the road and see a squirrel sitting quietly — almost frozen, if you will. Yet, the dogs are completely oblivious to that. Although sighthounds have the ability to detect movement at great distances, their binocular vision is only about 70 degrees. Flat-faced breeds such as the pug or boxer have a binocular field of about 80 degrees. In humans the binocular field is 140 degrees; therefore humans have an advantage in depth perception. Both humans and dogs have binocular vision: we see the landscape through both eyes. When looking straight ahead, the images found by the eyes overlap to some extent. Because of the distance between the right and left eye, they will record slightly different images, which allows the brain to estimate distance shape, and texture. The greater this overlap, the greater is the capability for depth perception to evaluate and recognize objects. Without it, the landscape would look almost flat. The canine eye is smaller than the human eye although the cells in both retinas are of equal size. The image formed on the dog’s retina is only about 75 percent of the image in the human eye. This covers a smaller number of cells; we lose detail but gain sharpness and depth perception.
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When It’s Dark

Human eyes and dog eyes work differently in the dark. One night someone had forgotten to put on the hallway light. When I arrived home with the dogs I had a lot of difficulty finding the keyhole. I finally got the key in the lock. I was at the bottom of the stairs with Feather and Tauren. Here I am with my arms full. I can barely see in the dark and I knew the dogs had to get up the stairs. So I just let them lead the way and, sure enough, they got me safely to the top of the darkened stairs. These animals can see and navigate quite well in the dark.They have a significantly higher rod and cone ratio than we humans.

What are rods and cones?

They are two different types of cells that exist in the retina of the eye. The name comes from their shape. Rods will record shapes and general outlines even in very low light levels.

Cones register fine detail in bright light. Rods in the eye are sensitive to light and are useful for black and white vision. Dogs also have a light reflecting layer called the tapetum lucidum at the back of their eyes, which acts as an image-intensifying device allowing them to utilize what little bit of illumination is available. Dog eyes that are in the process of adapting to seeing in dim light go through a few modifications. Finger-like projections of the tapetum move forward. They line the inner surface of the choroid to form a reflective layer behind the retina. The light passes through the retina in the dark-adapted eye, instead of being absorbed. The choroid reflects straight back through the retina by the tapetum twice and has a greater chance of activating the light-sensitive rods. In the dog, the tapetum is usually green or yellowish green. Hence the weird dog eyes that greet you when you are shining a flashlight in the middle of a power outage. Cats have this same advantage. Wild dogs tend to become active at dusk. That is the reason why nature allowed this adaptation to occur. Human vision has a higher cone and rod ratio and accounts for us having better color vision than dogs do. The evidence does point to the fact that dogs do perceive some colors. Perhaps they look at the world with rose-colored spectacles. This may not be a bad way to live, eh?
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References:

Dog Eyes

Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook, Delbert G. Carlson D.V.M and James M. Giffen M.D.,Howell Book House, New York, 1992.

DogWatching, Desmond Morris, Three Rivers Press, New York, 1986.

Dog Behaviour, Dr. Ian Dunbar, TFH Publications, New Jersey, 1979.