Sarah, the Cincinnati Zoos eight-year-old female cheetah, is now
the worlds fastest of all land mammals. Today, Sarah earned her spot in the record book when she crossed the
finish line in the 100-meter sprint with a time of 6.16 seconds in her very first attempt, breaking the previous mark of 6.19 seconds set by a male South African cheetah named Nyana in 2001. Then, in her second attempt she broke her own record with a time of 6.13 seconds. (For comparison, the Fastest Human on Earth, Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt, recently posted a 9.58 in the 100-meter dash.)
Cheetahs are endangered and their population worldwide has shrunk from about 100,000 in 1900 to an estimated 9,000 12,000 cheetahs today. The Cincinnati Zoo has been dubbed The Cheetah Capital of the World because of its conservation efforts through education, public interpretation, and the captive cheetah
breeding program. The Zoos Regional Cheetah Breeding Center is one of only four similar facilities in the United States managed by the Species Survival Plan. Since 2007, four out of only eight cheetah cub litters born in
North America were born in Cincinnati, more than anywhere else in the world. In total, there have been 37 cheetah cubs born in Cincinnati.
Since 1980 the Cincinnati Zoos Cat Ambassador Program has taken African cheetahs to schools and programs around the U.S, Canada, and Central America to spread the word that cheetahs are running for their lives. In addition, each summer the Zoo takes 22 school teachers to the Cheetah Conservation Funds
headquarters in Namibia for a two-week conservation field study. Since 1990 the Cincinnati Zoos Angel Fund, named after our first cheetah abassador, Angel, has directly supported cheetah conservation in Africa. From South African & Namibia in the south, up through Kenya & Tanzania in East Africa, The Angel Fund has contributed more than $1 million in support for cheetahs in the wild.