WELCOME!


Welcome to the temporary site for timhearnwildlife.com.

I'll be posting a few shots here while working on the main site, which is currently under construction...

Timhearnwildlife has been a long term passion and project of mine which is now reaching fruition. It is (or strictly speaking, will be) a commercial resource for wildlife and natural history photography and writing.

Over the last 10 years, I've been fortunate enough to travel extensively to all 7 continents, taking photographs and notes, and the site will showcase the results.

Please feel free to browse....



Monday 13 September 2010

CHEETAH

Cheetahs are cats with a problem. During the last ice age, numbers dropped to the point where a genetic bottleneck was formed, and resulted in a prolonged period of inbreeding. This means that their genetic variability is worryingly low, and they have problems with deformed sperm. In fact, the sperm count of the cheetah is so low that in other mammalian species it would be considered effectively infertile. The cheetah is actually a jaffah.

Namibia has the largest cheetah population in the world, and the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is doing a great job in research and education to help give the cheetah a future. There are also efforts afoot to reintroduce this charismatic cat into India. The last known cheetahs there were shot in 1947 by the Maharajah of Surguja. He also holds the record for the largest number of tigers killed, incidentally- 1,360. So he must have been a fun chap to have around...

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