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ahillamon — Cheetah Color Mutation Guide
Published: 2011-04-16 12:54:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 60314; Favourites: 1349; Downloads: 6065
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Description
A cheetah color mutation guide I did for my new unfinished roleplay site. The site's currently on a long hiatus and I might never actually launch it, but I thought this would be really neat to share with you guys.All of these pelt variations have occurred at some point or another and are based on information from this site: www.messybeast.com/genetics/mu… (in case the site is down for any reason here's an archived version of the page: web.archive.org/web/2013082208… ) I did use a little bit of creative liberty with the exact colors and marking positions, since there are no photographs of mutant specimens except for king cheetahs (UPDATE: a ticked (spotless) cheetah has been photographed in Kenya! www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic… ).
Fun fact: Cheetahs have abnormally little variation in their genetic code, due to a severe population bottleneck that happened during the last ice age. And yet it's incredible to find such a wide range of possible mutations (though many may have been lost forever by now).
Feel free to base your character on these descriptions, but please don't post this guide anywhere else without asking for my permission first and linking back here.
Cheetah template made by me.
Edit: Wow, a hundred favorites in just eight hours? I didn't know there were so many cheetah lovers out there!
Edit2: 300 favorites by 27 Aug 2011, and more are added every week. Thank you, really, it means a lot to me.
Edit3: Reached 1000 favorites on 30 May 2015
Related content
Comments: 294
Yeah, it's a shame so many of these beautiful coat variations are lost to us. The best we could do now is to protect the remaining cheetah population to make sure no more genetic diversity is destroyed.
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This is extremely helpful and a beautifully done guide 
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I agree, cheetahs are my favorite animals.
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There aren't a lot info about this. Thanks for share it with your illustration 8)
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No problem. Thanks for the comment!
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Thank you so much for making this! I have always wanted to see illustrations of the cheetah colour mutations.
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You are very welcome, I am glad to have been of help.
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Is there a difference of pelt between african cheetahs and asiatic ones?
Btw this is a wonderful guide.I didn't know there were so many cheetah color mutations, this made me learn a lot more about this beautiful animal.
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there are differences! the coat of the Asiatic is much heavier and softer and thicker
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Nice
Fluffy cheetahs for the win!
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There aren't any differences between African and Asiatic cheetahs that I know about.
And I'm really happy to hear you like the guide and find it helpful.
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ok...I just thought that it's strange that there are diferences between the saharan cheetahs and the normal ones and none between normal ones and asiatic cheetahs.
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Well, the Saharan cheetahs live in a desert environment, while the Asiatic and Sub-Saharan cheetahs' habitats are closer to than of a savanna (or in the Asiatic's case, were closer, since their range has been so drastically diminished in the past centuries, but nevertheless there hasn't been nearly enough time for natural selection to change their physical appearance).
Hope this cleared it up somewhat.
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aha, now I finally got it.Thanks for the explanation
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I'd love to see a blue cheetah... just friggin' awesome coloring...
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We need more blue animals period.
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Beautiful work. And eye-opening. I always thought the only variations were the top two: the normal and the rare King cheetah. (though I'm seeing more photos of those here on DA...maybe they're just being exposed more, or are there more of them popping up? 
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Oh, and I forgot to answer your question about king cheetahs. I guess the reason there are quite many photos of them is twofold: they are being bred more, and people who see one are more likely to photograph and upload pics of them, due to their (perceived) higher rarity and coolness factor compared to normal cheetahs.
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Oh, okay. So it's the "coolness factor" that's generating more Kings, and photos of them? (you gotta admit they ARE cool, a head-turner 
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I guess so. Prolly a lot of zoos and private wildlife collectors want one right now, even though we don't know what such selective breeding could cause to the species' already dangerously low genetic variation. Inbreeding's always a big concern when trying to achieve new and rare colors. Look what has happened due to careless white tiger breeding: [link]
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Good grief! He looks like an over sized persian cat! Holy everything!
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I know, it's so sad. 
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This is just not right...*sigh*
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Oh My God...the poor thing! Yeah we humans really screw around with animal genetics for fashion. Good examples are dogs (and a few cat breeds). 
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Yes, all in the name of flavor-of-the-week designer animals. Some people even color-coordinate their pets with their wardrobes. I mean it's a living creature, for crying out loud, not a handbag! Worse still when they do it with their own children as well.
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Yeah, for a long time I too thought the normal and king variations were the only ones. The thing is, these other mutations are extremely rare, and many of the documented cases I based them on were centuries ago. For instance, the blue cheetah seen here was presented to the Moghul Emperor of India in 1608, while the woolly cheetah was thought to have been eliminated by trophy hunters in the 1880s, and it had only been discovered a decade earlier (source: [link] ).
There have been infrequent reports of melanistic cheetahs popping up in different places. This could be caused by poor lighting conditions while observing, or an especially dark king cheetah, but I'd be willing to bet the melanistic gene still exists, especially since so many other big cat species have exhibited it as well. As for albinos, well, almost every animal species is capable of albinism, I think, it's just very rare.
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This is so cool! I love cheetahs - they're beautiful and amazing, and the fastest land mammal, of course. I knew they had limited genetic diversity, but I didn't know there were so many coat variations!
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I'm happy that my art has taught people something new about their favorite animals.
Of course, not all of these coat variations exist anymore, as they may have been hunted to extinction or just proven unsuitable for survival (I'd imagine an albino cheetah wouldn't be very successful as a hunter).
But there may also have existed mutations we know nothing about, since there was no one to document them, or the evidence may have been lost.
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I was lucky enough to visit Tanzania on a photo safari, and there's a group that is asking for copies of pics people taking of cheetahs, along with the date and approximate location. They're using it primarily to track known families, but it will also document anything unusual that anyone comes across.
I can't imagine the albino cheetah to do well, or even the melanistic one! Not when cheetahs hunt during the day a lot. Still, albinos happen in pretty much any species, and the melanistic variation seems to turn up in big cat species fairly often.
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Oh wow, you've been on a photo safari to Tanzania? 
It's interesting how melanism and albinism seem to occur in almost every species on the planet, though I guess they might just be two opposite extremes of pigmentation. Pseudo-melanism (or abundism aka increased number and size of dark markings, like a king cheetah) also seems a fairly common occurrence among big cats. It's also quite weird how melanism is due to a dominant gene in jaguars and a recessive on in leopards and other animals.
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I didn't know it was dominant for jaguars! Though that makes sense since there seem to be more melanistic jaguars than other cats.
The photo safari was incredible. It's an amazing, wonderful experience. No matter how good a zoo is, and some of them are very good, it can't be the same as seeing all of these animals out where they come from, out and free the way they belong.
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Actually, here's an English link to the zoo: [link]
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Yeah, I guess evolution must have favored black jaguars to spotted ones in shadowy rainforest undergrowths. Though it takes some getting used to the fact that the "normal" spotted jaguar is supposed to be the uncommon one.
Sometimes I wish I could go to exotic wildlife reserved. We have plenty of national parks and forests here in Estonia, but most of the wildlife is very shy of humans, especially the wolves and lynx. So mostly I've had to contend with observing our (lovely) zoo's animals.
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Oh, wow, baby Amur leopards! Have they been on Zooborns? I love that site, and I think they had a post on baby Amur leopards recently. I know they post from zoos around the world.
And Tallinn! I taught English in Poland for a year, went to visit a friend in Finland, and got a day in Tallinn on the way back. Such a beautiful city!
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Zooborns did have photos of Amur leopards, but they were from American zoos. Tallinn Zoo's only mention there seems to be about Wide-eyed owl chicks (which is a shame, we have so many rare baby animals every year and we're practically overflowing with various ungulates).
Oh, so you've been to Tallinn? It's so rare to meet someone who could point to Estonia on a map, let alone who has visited it. 
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Think of the US as kind of like Europe - instead of different countries, they're different states. Only it's even bigger and the public transport system sucks. 
I don't know how Zooborns gets their info. I think people just send them links, so you could send them a link about the baby leopards! I did see something recently about how they want to be as multinational as possible.
I'm an oddball amongst Americans for having traveled as much as I have. Teaching ESL overseas is great for that! I was only in Tallinn a very short time, really, but I loved what I saw and I'd love to get a chance to go back!
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Haha, I guess that's one way to compare them. Though I guess I'm somewhat of an oddball myself, since I know the US isn't just one big homogeneous blob and I could probably name most of the states and their general locations off the top of my head. I was thinking of the DC area as well, most of the major and older cities are in that area so it'd be natural to find more museums and galleries there. Oh, and bookstores! I love browsing for books, probably the only kind of shopping I actually like.
I dunno if I'm allowed to post photos and Zooborns if I didn't take them due to the copyright thing, I'll have to look into that a bit more. I do remember one time I was in the zoo and saw a newborn goat (can't remember species, something from the Caucasian mountains). The little thing had to be only a couple of minutes old, because he hadn't even learned to rise on his feet yet. His struggles were almost comical to watch.
I'm going to study geology in university this year and I'm pretty open to the idea of studying abroad for my magister's degree or after that. You just can't beat the practical experiences from living within another culture and language.
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Send Zooborns a link to your zoo's website? That might work. Especially if you can link them to specific pictures or video of the babies.
I'm all for studying abroad and encourage everyone to do it if they can manage! It gives you amazing insight, not only into the culture where you're staying, but also into your own!
DC has some marvelous bookstores. I have friends in the DC area and every time I visit them, we hit at least one huge used bookstore.
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Hmm, I'll think about sending them the zoo's link.
It's possible to mail-order foreign books to Estonia, but there's really no substitute to holding a book in your hands and skimming through it to see if it's worth buying or not. And the smell of fresh (or very old) print... *swoon*
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Oh, yeah, if/when you get to DC, you'll love those used bookstores! My favorite is quite easy to get to (about a two block walk from a subway stop) and in a neighborhood full of a huge mix of different ethnic restaurants.
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I LIKE the idea of a blue cheetah.
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