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Preparing for Cheetahs
 It was truly an exciting moment the day the Indianapolis Zoo staff was informed that they were going to exhibit cheetahs in Indianapolis. Of course, that was over three years ago—and the excitement has been building ever since. The Zoo’s Collection staff has over 70 years of combined experience with felines, but only about ten percent of this was with cheetahs. The first order of business—long before any construction would begin—was to design these exhibits and develop husbandry programs. Committees of Plains staff members met and set about establishing the necessary criteria.
Staff contacted other institutions across the world and gleaned information concerning containment, temperature and space parameters. Extensive data on nutrition, training, and daily husbandry needs was collected, then evaluated, collated, and submitted it to the designers and project managers. The Cheetah SSP© (Species Survival Plan) helped identify which cheetahs would be the best match for the exhibit. Staff members were sent across the country—and even across the world—to various institutions to receive more hands on experience with cheetahs. All of this took months of slow and deliberate planning and execution. No effort was considered too much to ensure the best  quality care possible for our new animal charges.
This hard work is now appreciated by the cheetahs as much as the guests. The exhibit contains such amenities as tree snags to climb and lay upon, hidden, heated watering devices that never freeze up in winter months, a thermostatically controlled heated rock for the animals to recline on in cooler weather, and a lot more. Cheetah photo by David Hagan
Barre Fields
Area Manager, Plains
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