WINDHOEK (Namibia), Dec 29 — Collecting cheetah prints in Namibia.
Researcher Larissa Slaney is building a database of paw-prints using the Footprint Identification Technique, developed by non-profit group WildTrack.
The software differentiates between individual cheetahs and can tell their sex and age with at least 90 per cent accuracy.
Slaney is developing an extra algorithm to show if they’re related — which could have a big impact on cheetah conservation.
“Just think of the shape of your face, the shape of your hand, your nose, your ear — that is all influenced by genetics. It’s the same for the cheetah or any other animal. So the shape of the foot is influenced by genetics,” Slaney said.
These are Asian short-clawed otters — like the cheetah, they’re classed as vulnerable.
At Edinburgh Zoo, Slaney demonstrated the footprinting technique — encouraging otters to walk across a sand patch, leaving a footprint.
“It basically looks at certain points in the paw and it then calculates different distances and angles and areas, and the ratio between them always stays the same,” Slaney said.
Inbreeding among cheetahs is putting further strain on the species, as habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict pushes them into increasingly confined regions.
A quick, non-invasive, method to test genetics could help avoid related cheetahs coming into contact.
“Because they suffer from very poor genetic variation I think it’s really important to start looking at relatedness of individuals so that if a cheetah has got to be translocated or released somewhere, that we choose a release site where it’s not related to the other cheetahs,” Slaney said.
Slaney is now collecting footprints and DNA data from captive cheetahs in Namibia to help develop the algorithm.
Populations of the world’s fastest land animal have plummeted in recent years, and experts are calling for it to be re-classed as endangered. — Reuters
