They have already traveled to the Czech Republic to capture the efforts to breed the last of thirteen remaining Northern white rhinoceroses left in the world. They also plan to shoot footage of scientists propagating both Asian and African elephants, as well as the Southern white rhinoceros—the more common subspecies. But they jumped on the opportunity to document the research being performed at CCF. The film crew heard about the studies being conducted at CCF only nine days before they actually arrived—which is quite a slim margin in which to make travel plans and arrangements—but they could not miss this special opportunity to observe a landmark study in carnivore conservation.

CCF is currently a hotbed for cheetah reproductive research. A team of collaborative researchers from the Smithsonian Institute and the University of California, Davis—both in the United States—are performing a groundbreaking study in collaboration with CCF about reproductive health of female cheetahs of different ages. Their study, which reaches a climax this week, involves inducing estrus in eleven female cheetahs and then extracting their eggs before they ovulate. With these eggs, the researchers have already begun to perform in vitro fertilization—the fusion of egg and sperm outside the reproductive tract—with sperm collected from one of CCF’s male cheetahs in their on-site laboratory. The BBC film crew has been tailing the scientists as they have toiled this week to successfully pioneer methods of artificial reproduction in cheetahs.

"Every single procedure is utterly unique and stunning. The level of professionalism is incredible," said Coleville, of the egg extractions and fertilizations he has documented this week.

The team also conducted intensive interviews with Dr. Adrienne Crosier, who is heading up the research team, and Dr. Laurie Marker, executive director of CCF. Both have devoted themselves to the survival of the cheetah, but in slightly different manner. Dr. Crosier focuses on breeding captive cheetahs so that zoos can maintain self-sustaining populations, whereas Dr. Marker has concentrated her efforts on studying the ecology of wild cheetahs and promoting coexistence between farmers in Namibia and the cheetahs that inhabit their land. But they both offer insightful commentary on the conservation of the endangered cheetah.

The program will air in January of 2007