Cheetah Conservation Hero!

Once upon a time zoos and wildlife parks existed mostly as venues to experience the mysterious and the fantastical. They were places where the behemoths and monsters of exotic lands could amaze sightseers of bygone days. Wonderful places to be sure, but places in which the creatures presented were displayed out of context with the real world they came from. Here and now, in the era of Youtube, the National Geographic Channel and Wild Kratts, things have changed. The eyes are still wide and the wonder is if anything more prominent than ever. What’s changed is that the animals are no longer seen as alien, exotic and unreal. Instead, we’ve become aware that they are fascinating, important, and deeply vulnerable beings who also happen to share this small blue planet with us. This shift in understanding is most apparent for our younger guests.

The kids who come visit Safari West each day often have a base-level of knowledge that is staggering in its breadth and surprisingly sophisticated. Our guides are out there talking about conservation to crowds of six and seven year olds who arrive here already comfortable talking about why rhino horn isn’t at all medicinal and how the deforestation of Madagascar is driving lemurs toward extinction. It’s fascinating. We’re living in a time when a word like “nerd”, once hurled as an insult, has instead evolved into something to aspire to. We’ve reached the era in which curious equals cool.

Recently, we at Safari West had the privilege of meeting a spectacular member of this youngest generation. We were visited by Teylana Jenkins and her family, who came here for cheetahs; to finally see them live and in the flesh. As we would later discover, young Teylana also had another goal in coming here; to donate her carefully saved money to cheetah conservation. Teyla is an incredible person and a strident conservation advocate. She is driven, productive, tenacious, and self-motivated. We should probably pause and take a moment to note that Teyla is also only six-years-old.

When Teyla was four, her mother Jennica Jenkins took her to a toy store where she gravitated toward a small, plastic cheetah figurine. The cheetah figurine quickly became one of her favorite toys and spawned an interest in all things cheetah. Her blossoming passion would soon lead Teyla to Wild Kratts, a wonderful and scientifically educational television show that is famous around Safari West for its well-informed young fans. One of the first things new safari guides around here learn is that Wild Kratts fans will show you up in a hurry if you’re not on your game.

Teyla’s passion for cheetahs accelerated with the celebration of her fifth birthday. Her party was cheetah themed and according to Mrs. Jenkins, every day since then her daughter has worn cheetah-print clothes. That summer, Teyla went to visit the Sacramento Zoo looking to see her favorite animal in real life. While Sacramento doesn’t currently house cheetahs, she did get to see their lions, jaguar and snow leopard and began to learn how to identify and differentiate the different big cats. More knowledgeable than ever and still focused on cheetahs, Teyla (under her parent’s supervision of course) took to the internet and the magic of YouTube.

Teyla’s mother told me about watching cheetah videos with her five-year-old daughter. Teyla would pause on occasion, thoughtful and pensive, and then ask her mom very somber questions. What is a poacher? What is endangered? Poaching, habitat loss, and conflict with farmers and livestock; these are just a few of the things cheetahs run up against in the wild and Teyla, suddenly confronted with this harsh reality, was understandably upset. In an effort to cheer her up, Teyla’s parents, Jennica and Russ began introducing her to the idea of conservation. Their initial exploring led them to the Cheetah Conservation Fund and the Wild Kratts Foundation. After some digging, they also discovered Safari West.

Originally, Teyla was going to visit us in September to meet real live cheetahs for the first time. It was a gift for her sixth birthday and though we didn’t know it, she was packing up her best cheetah clothing and all of her birthday card money for the trip. Unfortunately, the planned visit just happened to coincide with the now famous Valley Fire and when the Jenkins family got out here they found that all the hotels had filled with evacuees. They went home. Teyla, though disappointed, demonstrated characteristic maturity when she told her parents, “it’s okay. We can go see the cheetahs after the fire people go back home”.

As it turned out, the third time was the charm and Teyla finally got her wish in October. The Jenkins family came out to Safari West and went on one of our classic safari tours. Their guide Jessica, impressed by young Teyla, talked to the head of our Research, Education and Conservation department who then talked to the head of our Carnivore department and with the speed you’d expect from somebody with her title, “Cheetah Marie” came to meet our young conservation hero.

Cheetah Marie talked with Teyla and told her all about the cheetahs living at Safari West. Teyla, Jennica, Russ, and Marie visited for quite a while and to this day Marie gets a bit misty when Teyla’s name comes up. Why? Because at the close of their time together, Teyla presented Cheetah Marie with a small coin purse. Inside it, all the birthday and allowance money she’d been saving for cheetahs. After gratefully accepting, Cheetah Marie sent Teyla’s donation to the Wildlife Conservation Network who passed it along to our friend Rebecca Klein from Cheetah Botswana to help with the amazing work they do.

This newest generation currently coming into their own is amazing. They understand the interconnectedness of the world and its ecosystems in an intuitive way. Earlier generations, including the one writing our laws and making conservation a priority have done an excellent job educating the world and teaching it to care, but it’s this generation, the one growing up in the information age that will enact real change. They are passionate, well-informed and deeply curious about the world around them. As they go into the world in their twenties and thirties, these kids will take on global leadership roles. Amazingly, Teylana Jenkins has already begun to do this at six years old. This is one of the most hopeful signs imaginable and, though rare, Teyla’s not alone. There are other kids just like her out there and we at Safari West have the privilege of meeting some of them from time to time. We’re incredibly lucky to have people like Teyla fighting for this world and as she continues down the path she’s forging for herself, it’s comforting to know she’ll inspire a million more just like her.