While mutations in Taqpep can make a cheetah's spots become blotchy, the spots don't turn into stripes. And as Eizirik's work showed, domestic cats with a normal Taqpep gene can be either striped ...

I think people naturally root for the underdog, so perhaps that’s why Pobe, a 7-year-old female cheetah quickly became my favourite big cat on Xudum island. Cheetahs are quite literally ...