Davis the Cheetah Dies at Maryland Zoo in Baltimore

Davis, the Maryland Zoo's last male cheetah, has been euthanized at almost 12 years old after his chronic gastrointestinal problems worsened despite ongoing care from the zoo's medical team. His death comes more than three years after his brother and longtime enclosure-mate, Bud, was put down for a strikingly similar illness.

The zoo announced the euthanasia of Davis in a release, remembering him as a much-loved resident of the Maryland Zoo's African Journey enclosure, according to CBS News. Davis and Bud were born on October 1, 2014, at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, before moving to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in 2016 and then the Wildlife Safari Park in 2018, according to The Maryland Zoo. The brothers finally arrived in Baltimore in March 2019 through an Association of Zoos & Aquariums Cheetah Species Survival Program transfer, taking the place of two four-year-old males, Refu and Wgasa, who were sent to Nebraska for breeding.

A Shared Illness, Years Apart

Bud was humanely euthanized at age 8 on February 28, 2023, after a complex, chronic gastrointestinal illness failed to resolve despite intensive treatment from zoo veterinarians and outside specialists, per the same account from the zoo. Davis adjusted well to living on his own after his brother's death, CBS News reports, and the zoo monitored him closely in the years that followed. Wild adult male cheetahs typically form lifelong territorial coalitions with their male littermates for hunting and defense, which is part of why the zoo kept the brothers housed together for as long as it did.

Davis's own gastrointestinal issues worsened recently despite care from the zoo's medical team, according to CBS News, leading to the decision to euthanize him. His illness echoes a problem that veterinary researchers say is far from rare in captivity: chronic gastritis affects between 80% and over 90% of North American captive cheetahs, according to research published through DukeSpace, making it one of the most widespread chronic conditions in zoo-housed cheetah populations. A 2015 epidemiological survey of 184 captive cheetahs across 86 facilities, published in PLOS ONE, found that diets built around long bones and raw muscle meat significantly lowered the odds of chronic gastritis and diarrhea, while horsemeat-based commercial diets increased the risk.

A Long Life By Captive Standards

Davis lived beyond the expected lifespan of cheetahs, according to the Maryland Zoo, and Association of Zoos and Aquariums data cited by the Oregon Zoo puts the median life expectancy for captive cheetahs in accredited zoos between 11.3 and 12 years, compared with roughly 8 years for wild males. At nearly 12, Davis landed right at that upper benchmark, having already outlived what a male cheetah could typically expect in the wild by several years.

The Maryland Zoo has managed the deaths of aging and ailing cheetahs before. The zoo previously euthanized 14.5-year-old male Rafiki in February 2014 and 15-year-old female Alix in March 2015, both suffering from age-related ailments including kidney disease and spinal arthritis. In January 2016, the zoo also lost nine-year-old cheetah sisters Tuli and Teep to veno-occlusive liver disease, a fatal hereditary condition tied to the extreme genetic monomorphism that resulted from an ancient population bottleneck in the species.

Why Captive Cheetahs Matter to a Shrinking Wild Population

Cheetahs are the world's fastest mammal, yet they have grown rare in Africa, especially outside protected parks, CBS News notes. International conservation assessments report that fewer than 7,100 to 12,500 wild cheetahs remain globally, with the species considered vulnerable to extinction due to poaching, habitat fragmentation, and extermination efforts by farmers, according to research indexed by the National Institutes of Health.

Against that backdrop, North American zoos play an outsized role in the species' survival, conducting research to learn more about cheetahs and supporting broader conservation efforts, per CBS News. Davis and Bud's journeys through Texas, Nebraska, Oregon, and finally Maryland reflect exactly how those Species Survival Plan transfers work in practice, moving individual animals between accredited institutions to support genetic health and public education even as the species' wild numbers keep shrinking.