Reading the Cheetah Genome: teacher key

Cheetahs, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. How scientists measure the fastest land animal, and what its genes and range show. Read the evidence from Botswana, Namibia and the Yukon.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did the 2013 Botswana collars record as a top speed?
   • 58 miles per hour (answer)
   • 110 miles per hour
   • 30 miles per hour
2. Cheetah genomes are on average 95 percent homozygous, compared with 24 percent for the outbred domestic cat. What does this show?
   • Very much genetic variation
   • A much larger body
   • Very little genetic variation (answer)
3. What did fourteen skin grafts between unrelated cheetahs show in a 1985 study?
   • Fast healing in cats
   • Extreme genetic uniformity (answer)
   • A new kind of cheetah
4. Why might human eyes overcount cheetahs in camera-trap photographs?
   • Cheetahs change their spots
   • Cameras show only males
   • Identification errors can overestimate counts (answer)
5. What does the word generalist mean in this book?
   • Runs very fast
   • Eats many foods (answer)
   • Lives in water

Words

• collar: neck band
• scat: animal droppings
• genomes: all their genes
• homozygous: matching gene pairs
• generalist: eats many foods