Nature & Environment
Chewbaaka the Cheetah Reveals His Species Migrated from America to Africa
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Dec 09, 2015 02:13 PM EST
It turns out that the cheetah migrated from North America. After taking a closer look at "Chewbaaka," a male Namibian cheetah, researchers have found that this large cat started in America before traveling to the African plains.
The modern African cheetah is found across eastern and southern Africa. However, this large cat is highly endangered because of its small, free ranging population and because of inbreeding. That's why researchers have taken a closer look at these wild cats.
In this case, the researchers sequenced the genome of "Chewbaaka" and six other wild cheetahs form Tanzania and Namibia. They found that a total of 18 cheetah genes showed damaging mutations and one gene in particular, AKAP4, showed a large number of mutations which could harm sperm development and may explain why cheetahs have a large proportion of defective sperm. This, in turn, may explain their low reproductive success.
The researchers also found that the cheetah suffered from two population bottlenecks, which are events when a population is rapidly reduced due to environmental factors.
The first of these took place about 100,000 years ago, around the late Pleistocene, which is a geological period shaped by repeated glaciations, when cheetahs started to move towards Asia across the Beringian land bridge and then traveled south to Africa. This migration was punctuated with dwindling populations and limited gene flow due to the individuals' own vast territory boundaries, measuring 300 to 800 square miles, thereby increasing incestuous mating.
The second bottleneck occurred 10 to 12,000 years ago and further reduced numbers, leading to further loss of endemic variability observed in modern cheetahs. This is because cheetahs disappeared from North America, when the last glacial retreat caused an abrupt extinction, resulting in the loss of many large mammals.
In fact, gene tests show that the cheetah has lost 90 to 99 percent of the genetic variation typically seen in outbred animals. This, in particular, shows why the cheetah may be facing such a risk of extinction.
The findings are published in the journal Genome Biology.
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First Posted: Dec 09, 2015 02:13 PM EST
It turns out that the cheetah migrated from North America. After taking a closer look at "Chewbaaka," a male Namibian cheetah, researchers have found that this large cat started in America before traveling to the African plains.
The modern African cheetah is found across eastern and southern Africa. However, this large cat is highly endangered because of its small, free ranging population and because of inbreeding. That's why researchers have taken a closer look at these wild cats.
In this case, the researchers sequenced the genome of "Chewbaaka" and six other wild cheetahs form Tanzania and Namibia. They found that a total of 18 cheetah genes showed damaging mutations and one gene in particular, AKAP4, showed a large number of mutations which could harm sperm development and may explain why cheetahs have a large proportion of defective sperm. This, in turn, may explain their low reproductive success.
The researchers also found that the cheetah suffered from two population bottlenecks, which are events when a population is rapidly reduced due to environmental factors.
The first of these took place about 100,000 years ago, around the late Pleistocene, which is a geological period shaped by repeated glaciations, when cheetahs started to move towards Asia across the Beringian land bridge and then traveled south to Africa. This migration was punctuated with dwindling populations and limited gene flow due to the individuals' own vast territory boundaries, measuring 300 to 800 square miles, thereby increasing incestuous mating.
The second bottleneck occurred 10 to 12,000 years ago and further reduced numbers, leading to further loss of endemic variability observed in modern cheetahs. This is because cheetahs disappeared from North America, when the last glacial retreat caused an abrupt extinction, resulting in the loss of many large mammals.
In fact, gene tests show that the cheetah has lost 90 to 99 percent of the genetic variation typically seen in outbred animals. This, in particular, shows why the cheetah may be facing such a risk of extinction.
The findings are published in the journal Genome Biology.
Related Stories
Elusive Saharan Cheetah Caught in the First Ever Closeups on Camera
Great Barrier Reef Protects Australia from Tsunamis
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone