Cheetah Conservation Fund

When the Zoo designed its Cheetah: The Race for Survival exhibit, which opened in 2010, the planners included something never before seen in quite this kind of setting.  Objective?  To get young visitors interested in the world’s fastest land animal and to generate funds that would directly go to the conservation of these spectacular, but much endangered, big cats.

Race-a-Cheetah also benefitted from a donation from someone who knows and admires superior speed when he sees it – 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion (and fellow Hoosier) Tony Stewart, whose Tony Stewart Foundation supports educational programming at the Indianapolis Zoo.  Thus was born the concept of demonstrating just how fast a cheetah can run (and how and why they need to be that quick), while also telling the story of how researchers are working to save them in Africa. 

The vehicle to tie those two ideas together is Race-a-Cheetah, a small, but vital part of the exhibit where young visitors would pay 50 cents to “enter” the track and go like crazy to try and outrun the 60 miles per hour light array that duplicates a cheetah's speed, all the while listening to audio messages about the speed and grace of the cheetah.  Net proceeds go directly to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia to fund various projects that benefit wild cheetahs.  Photo by Tim Ardillo

One of the items to which Race-a-Cheetah funds are applied is support for raising Kangal dogs at the CCF.  CCF staffers train the dogs to guard livestock for the farmers and ranchers in Namibia.  The dogs protect the sheep and goats from the cheetahs, which occasionally attack domestic animals, which means that the humans won’t have to kill the cheetahs to protect their property and livelihoods.  It’s a simple, yet elegant, solution to this particular human-animal conflict, and to tell that story, the Zoo also features a daily Kangal dog chat in another section of the cheetah exhibit.  Photo by Gabi Moore

In only two years, the Zoo has been able to generate nearly $30,000 in Race-a-Cheetah donations, which at only 50 cents per kid, means that nearly 60,000 young and impressionable Zoo visitors have participated.  In 2011 alone, those little half dollar donations paid for the care of two orphaned cheetahs for a year, two litters of livestock guarding dog puppies, and the medical workup and release of three wild cheetahs.

Race-a-Cheetah doesn’t stand alone.  The track is located along one of multiple vistas into the cheetah habitat, one of which features a truly up close viewing window (basically, eyeball-to-eyeball encounters between humans and cats).  Interpretative graphics throughout the exhibit tell the story of cheetahs in Africa and of the work of Dr. Laurie Marker and her staff at CCF.

Dr. Marker is no stranger to Indianapolis; twice a finalist for the Indianapolis Prize, the founder of CCF has visited the Zoo several times and personally consulted with Zoo staff on the design and concept for the exhibit.  The Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation, biennially honors true heroes of conservation who are making a real difference in the global effort to save threatened and endangered animal species.  Her status as a two time finalist for the $100,000 Prize and the Lilly Medal that goes with it speaks volumes about the importance and quality of the work she and the CCF have, and continue, to do to contribute to conserving cheetahs.