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King Cheetah
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King
Cheetah photograph ©copyright careless dreamer -
published under
a creative commons license --
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There is a certain similarity between the coat pattern of the King Cheetah and that of marbled Bengal cats or perhaps the pattern is somewhere in between the classic spotted coat and the marbled coat of the Bengal cat. I particularly refer to the dense lines running down either side of the spine of this wild cat. In Bengal cats the coat pattern is simply down to breeding from cats that carry the genes that produces the required pattern. The genes responsible are the Agouti gene, which produces the ticked or banded hairs, the tabby gene which produces the pattern of the hairs and the interaction of a group of "nonallelic genes" that warms up the dull yellow banding of the Agouti gene. You can see the spotted Bengal cat in the header to this webpage, which is not dissimilar. Another domestic cat that is similar is the wild cat hybrids, the Savannah. I suspect something similar is happening with regard to the King Cheetah only it happens naturally and the gene that produces a coat distinctly different to the Cheetah we are more familar with is a naturally occcuring mutated gene. This mutated gene is recessive, which in practice means that its existence is not apparent for long periods of time. Both this and the fact that people liked to wear the skin of the King Cheetah makes this cat extremely rare. At the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust they have a breeding program and a large number have been successful bred since May 1981 when the first in captivity was born. This first captive-born King-Cheetahs were the offspring of classically spotted Cheetahs confirming the presence of a recessive gene. Before the welcome breeding success at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust, this Cheetah was first formally noted in Zimbabwe in 1926. Although one was photographed in 1974 in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, most of the evidence came from pelts, sadly, or even stuffed animals. The usual handy work of humankind. By 1987, apparently, evidence of the exitance of 38 cats had been collected. This is clearly a very low number. The name of this cat possibly misleads. This cat is no more important or special than any other Cheetah, just a little rarer. This cat has been known to live in these areas of Africa: The links open to Google maps showing the location in a separate window. This map shows where the Transvaal is in relation to Botswana and Zimbabwe:  Transvaal
marked in red with Bostwana and Zimbabwe - Reproduced under Wikimedia
commons license - the creator of this map is the author of the
Wikipedia article on theTransvaal. He created it from an earlier map by
Messhermit.
Click on the link to see some more pictures of the King Cheetah. 
Sources:
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