Cheetah Conservation Fund’s Senior Research Assistant Ezekiel Fabiano travelled to the USA for the first time to attend a genetics course at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology in January. The course was taught by international authorities in genetics to 28 young scientists from 16 countries. Sponsored by the American Genetics Association, and directed by CCF USA’s Chair Stephen O’Brien, chief of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity and the Section of Genomics at the National Institutes of Health, the course applies genetics to solve problems affecting humans and other species.
Following the course, Fabiano flew to the continental U.S. to impart talks at Brookfield Zoo and various CCF’s Chapter meetings in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and had an opportunity to meet with scientists and colleagues at Princeton University, North Carolina State University, the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center, the National Institutes of Health, and Conservation International.
“Interacting and exchanging views with professionals working on wildlife monitoring has been a fantastic learning experience,” said Fabiano. Of his meetings with CCF’s Chapters and supporters, he said, “I am honoured to have met so many people committed to cheetah conservation.”
“Educating the public about the cheetah’s plight for survival is key to CCF’s multi-disciplinary efforts to conserve the wild cheetah, and supporting our staff members who choose to pursue higher education is equally important,” said CCF’s Executive Director, Dr. Laurie Marker. “Only last year, three of our staff members enrolled in Master’s Degree programs, while three others, including Fabiano, already submitted their Master’s theses.”
Fabiano completed his Master’s thesis, “Evaluation of Spoor Tracking to Monitor Cheetah Abundance in Central Northern Namibia,” through the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. His project analysed CCF’s spoor counts and data from the mark-recapture database to produce a comparison in census techniques between the two methodologies. Fabiano, who just turned 27, will start his literature review for submission of a proposal for his Doctorate degree.

Fabiano (center) at the National Zoo’s CRC Department of Reproductive Sciences, with Pierre Comizzoli, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow, and JoGayle Howard, DVM, Ph.D., Theriogenologist,