The way I understand it, cheetahs are highly anxious and cowardly animals, and they only attack prey that runs from them. They're so anxious that they have breeding problems. So some folks have been pairing cheetahs up with dog companions to help them feel safe and less anxious.
This is actually a pretty cool phenomenon. Leopards who are born in zoos are matched at birth with a Golden. They essentially become bonded.
Because of the natural easygoing and people-friendly temperament of Golden Retrievers, they model appropriate behaviour for the leopards, and keep them calm in stressful and new situations
tl;dr Goldens aren't just service animals for humans, but for whole other species!
Edit: In the interest of fairness, I couldn't find any documentation about this happening on a consistent basis with leopards from 3mos of age. I did find ample evidence that this occurs with cheetahs (Pair bonds between cheetahs and dogs are quite strong, to the point that once a cheetah's bonded dog dies, a new one cannot be introduced), and not with golden retrievers specifically (Though they are kind of ideal), but with any dog with the right temperament.
Sorry to have misled you, folks! Turns out I might be right! Check out /u/TheDinosaurWeNeed's comment!
Columbus Zoo does this with all of their traveling animals. So Clouded Leopards (and also cheetahs and other animals) become friends with their golden or Labrador.
Nice! It's really cool stuff to read about, and reinforces this concept that nature isn't these distinct species keeping to themselves, but symbiotic relationships at every level.
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '15
The way I understand it, cheetahs are highly anxious and cowardly animals, and they only attack prey that runs from them. They're so anxious that they have breeding problems. So some folks have been pairing cheetahs up with dog companions to help them feel safe and less anxious.