Personality and reproductive success in captive cheetahs

Cheetahs breed poorly in captivity, and this study asked whether temperament was part of the problem. Keepers rated individual cheetahs on behavioural traits, yielding dimensions such as tense-fearful versus calm and aggressive versus easygoing. Females rated as tense and fearful were less likely to reproduce successfully, linking personality directly to a major conservation challenge. The work was among the first to show that individual temperament has practical fitness consequences in a managed felid population, and it helped legitimise personality assessment as a tool in captive breeding, enrichment design, and welfare evaluation for endangered cats. It remains widely cited in zoo biology.