My dd and I visited Fossil Rim (www.fossilrim.org) yesterday. It is a "working wildlife ranch" that helps support many endangered species.
We were excited to see some cheetahs very near the fence of their enclosure as we drove through the ranch yesterday. I told my daughter to get the camera and she took this photo, as they often move away if you try to look at them too closely:
We got closer, and after a few seconds, I realized something was very different about the cheetah lying down. Only after I took a photo, did I fully realize----he has no eyes!
After a few seconds he could smell us, and he got up and slowly walked toward his buddy. He is a male, and I just wondered what had happened to his eyes? I emailed Fossil Rim today, and this was their reply:
The cheetah that you saw on the tour was a very special cheetah. His name is Zaris and he is 11 years old. He was a wild-caught cheetah from Africa, who had been abandoned by his mother. He is a remarkable cat and very beautiful. He is the largest cheetah (in height and length) that I have ever seen. We received him from another institution 3 years ago and noticed something was wrong with his eyes. His pupils were always extremely dilated. We found no reason as to why this was occurring, so we just monitored it for awhile. During this time he was our main breeding male. He sired several litters here with a few females. In time, he started to show signs of being in pain and he began to lose part of his eye sight. We brought in a specialist to look at his eyes. After a few medical procedures, we found that he has glaucoma. He was the first cheetah in captivity to ever be diagnosed with glaucoma. His condition became severe and he was in so much pain from the pressure in his eyes that he refused to eat and really even move around. Our options were slim. We could euthanize him, perform corrective laser surgery (which has a very long, painful recovery and might have to be done every 9 months), or remove his eyes. We chose the latter. This was a very tough decision to make and extremely difficult for me, because he is my favorite cat. We performed the surgery about 2 years ago. It was a long recovery for him, but we were very thankful that we decided to do this. He has fully recovered and lives a great life. At times, it is hard to believe that he doesn’t have eyes. He moves around the yard very well and has fine-tuned his hearing so he rarely bumps into the fence or a tree, etc. At times he will even chase my truck along the tour route. Very amazing. He lives with another male, Otavi, and they are very closely bonded. They spend lots of time grooming each other and lying around. All in all, it was a complete success and it is a great story.
Thanks for looking. Happy New Year
C
We were excited to see some cheetahs very near the fence of their enclosure as we drove through the ranch yesterday. I told my daughter to get the camera and she took this photo, as they often move away if you try to look at them too closely:
We got closer, and after a few seconds, I realized something was very different about the cheetah lying down. Only after I took a photo, did I fully realize----he has no eyes!
After a few seconds he could smell us, and he got up and slowly walked toward his buddy. He is a male, and I just wondered what had happened to his eyes? I emailed Fossil Rim today, and this was their reply:
The cheetah that you saw on the tour was a very special cheetah. His name is Zaris and he is 11 years old. He was a wild-caught cheetah from Africa, who had been abandoned by his mother. He is a remarkable cat and very beautiful. He is the largest cheetah (in height and length) that I have ever seen. We received him from another institution 3 years ago and noticed something was wrong with his eyes. His pupils were always extremely dilated. We found no reason as to why this was occurring, so we just monitored it for awhile. During this time he was our main breeding male. He sired several litters here with a few females. In time, he started to show signs of being in pain and he began to lose part of his eye sight. We brought in a specialist to look at his eyes. After a few medical procedures, we found that he has glaucoma. He was the first cheetah in captivity to ever be diagnosed with glaucoma. His condition became severe and he was in so much pain from the pressure in his eyes that he refused to eat and really even move around. Our options were slim. We could euthanize him, perform corrective laser surgery (which has a very long, painful recovery and might have to be done every 9 months), or remove his eyes. We chose the latter. This was a very tough decision to make and extremely difficult for me, because he is my favorite cat. We performed the surgery about 2 years ago. It was a long recovery for him, but we were very thankful that we decided to do this. He has fully recovered and lives a great life. At times, it is hard to believe that he doesn’t have eyes. He moves around the yard very well and has fine-tuned his hearing so he rarely bumps into the fence or a tree, etc. At times he will even chase my truck along the tour route. Very amazing. He lives with another male, Otavi, and they are very closely bonded. They spend lots of time grooming each other and lying around. All in all, it was a complete success and it is a great story.
Thanks for looking. Happy New Year
C
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