Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists. Cheetahs, the fastest land animals, are once again on the brink of extinction. They are dying off in the wild as well as in captivity, where they have considerable trouble breeding. One breeding program has gone to great lengths to improve the reproductive odds, including drugging and pampering females and using scent to entice males. Scientists have known for years that cheetahs have been dying off in the wild.
Captive populations are on the decline as well.
In 1998 at least 40 cheetahs died in North American zoos alone, from old age and from an AIDS-like disease. Only 250 remain on the continent. Four cheetah cubs at the San Diego Wild Animal Park are a sign of hope for breeding programs, which came to a standstill in the mid-1990s to stop the spread of the cheetah disease. But the programs still face many challenges. Hormone injections worked for a cheetah mother there.