Cheetahs Are Such Anxious Animals, Zoos Provide Them With Personal Support Dogs

cheetahs are such anxious animals zoos provide them with personal support dogs [Music] you'll often see humans walking around with support dogs support dogs do really great work for people suffering from both physical and mental ailments but humans aren't the only ones who need help from these caring canines there are animals who need support animals too cheetahs in particular are stressed out animals this is only magnified when they're in captivity in the wild cheetahs are naturally on edge but they can disperse some of that nervous energy by running in vast spaces in a zoo that energy doesn't have the same outlet in a zoo setting these big cats can become overwhelmed to the point where they don't breed they don't know how to bond with each other and can become shut off this is especially worrisome because cheetahs aren't becoming extinct whatever your opinion of zoos may be their intentions are to keep endangered animals from becoming extinct so some zoos came up with a solution to calm these big cats as nerves and make them more confident they've paired cheetahs with support dogs to help them cope with a captive setting recently a tweet went viral about how some zoos used dogs to help cheetahs relax it got over 280 000 likes and over 101 000 retweets people were amazed about this partnership but this practice of pairing cheetahs with service dogs has existed for decades the san diego zoo has employed service dogs for cheetahs since the 1980s following the success of the program many other zoos have followed suit and paired their timid cheetahs with confident pops it's a true love story of one species helping another species survive said jack grisham vp of animal collections at the saint louis zoo janet rose in a stroza animal training supervisor at the san diego zoo said that cheetahs are instinctively shy and dominant dogs help them overcome that when you pair them the cheetah looks to the dog for cues and learns to model their behavior it's about getting them to read that calm happy-go-lucky vibe from the dog she added the cheetah cubs are paired with puppies when both are around three or four months rosannastroza said that while the process to find a match is painfully slow it's also a lot of fun she added there are lots of toys and distractions and they're like two cute little kids who desperately want to play but cheetahs are instinctively hard-wired to feel uneasy so you have to wait and let the cat make the first move once both the dog and cheetah prove that they can interact with each other without leashes and constant supervision they're moved into a living space where they spend all their time together the dogs are only removed from the cheetah enclosure at feeding time the dog is the dominant in the relationship so if we didn't separate them the dog would eat all the cheetah's food and we'd have a really skinny cheetah and a really chubby dog explains rose and estroza other than that they're always with their best body while retrievers and labradors are primarily employed by over 15 zoos that have this cheetah service dog program the san diego zoo adopts a variety of mutts in turn they end up also saving the life of dogs that could have been put down my favorite dog is hopper because we found him at a kill shelter and he's just 40 pounds but he lives with amara who's our toughest cheetah by far said rose hinostrosa it's not about strength or overpowering it's about developing a positive relationship where the cheetah takes her cues from the dog here hopper is pictured with amara's cousin kaburi the dogs at the san diego zoo play with other cheetahs but form special connections with their partner cheetah amara is so attached to hopper said rosen estroza she loves him she grooms him she sleeps with him she gets worried if he's not around there are plenty of other examples of extremely successful cheetah dogs relationships kombali and kago are an amazing duo kombali is a cheetah at the metro richmond zoo in virginia he's best friends with kago a yellow lab mix the two are inseparable and spend all their days together yeti is one of the companion dogs at the san diego zoo she's a gorgeous anatolian shepherd and a service dog to two of the zoo's cheetahs yeti is also a symbol representing the efforts of the cheetah conservation fund's livestock regarding dog program in namibia in the 1980s local farmers in namibia killed 3 000 cheetahs nearly half of the cheetah population in the country as retaliation for cheetahs killing their livestock the cheetah conservation fund set up a program where anatolian shepherds and kangle dogs are raised with farmers herds these dogs end up saving cheetahs lives by chasing them away from the herd before farmers get a chance to shoot them so it turns out the cats and dogs can be friends in the case of these u.s zoos man's best friend turns out to be cheetah's best friend these amazing dogs are not only providing valuable companionship for the cheetahs they're also helping keep them on this planet