Woman aids the survival of cheetahs

Ronit Kobrinski is running in a race with cheetahs, a race, that is, to ensure the survival of cheetahs as the fastest sprinters in the animal world.

Ronit Kobrinski (r) of Colts Neck has spent time working with Dr. Laurie Marker in Namibia, Africa, to help save cheetahs and to educate people about the big cat that is the fastest sprinter in the animal world. Marker is the founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund. "Cheetahs can sprint from 0 to 70 mph in about four seconds," said Kobrinski, 28. "I was blown away the first time I saw a cheetah run. It was just awesome."

In November, Kobrinski returned for two weeks to Namibia, on the continent of Africa, the country that inspired her love and advocacy for cheetahs. In 2004, she spent three months as a student intern for the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), an organization dedicated to the research, education and preservation of cheetahs. The CCF is headquartered in northern Namibia.

Just before leaving on her trip, Kobrinski, a 1998 Freehold High School graduate who resides in Colts Neck, spoke about her first experience with cheetahs in 2004 and the reason for her return this year.

"I learned about CCF from my cousin, Aaron Wexler, who led eco-safaris in Africa," she said. "I researched CCF on the Internet, raised the funds required by CCF and decided to go. The country, about twice the size of California, was more beautiful than I imagined."

Kobrinski said she worked with cheetahs every day, including feeding adults and cubs, as well as caring for the medical needs of wild and resident cheetahs.

"I helped retrieve injured cheetahs from farms, including a 10-month-old cub with a broken leg that was caused by a trap," she said. "Also, I was involved in releasing healthy wild cheetahs back to their natural habitat."

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the class of 2002 of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Kobrinski has a bachelor of science degree in genetics and microbiology. She has continued studies for a master's degree in these fields at Rutgers. While at CCF, she did genetic research on the asymmetry of cheetah skulls that had been collected over the years.

Cheetahs, she said, were domesticated in ancient times by the Egyptians and others who used them for hunting.

"They are the only big cats that purr," Kobrinski explained. "Their fur is coarse, which saved cheetahs from being hunted for it."

Today, she said, cheetahs are being hunted because of their presumed danger as predators to livestock in Namibia and other parts of Africa and even in Iran, where about 300 Asian cheetahs are found.

"There are about 10,000 to 12,000 cheetahs left in the world," Kobrinski said. "About 3,000 cheetahs are found in Namibia. CCF has an integrated plan of working with the local inhabitants and farmers, using education and research, to produce a model that benefits the people and the cheetahs or other predators."

As an example, she said an invasive thorn bush was destroying the cheetah's natural habitat of grasslands in Namibia. CCF worked with the local people, and a factory was built that turned the harvested thorn bush into wood chips. The chips were then compressed in fire logs and sold. Work and income went to the people, and the cheetahs benefited by having their habitat preserved.

"It's not going to be outsiders coming in and telling the people what to do to save cheetahs," Kobrinski said. "It has to come from the people there who see the benefits of ensuring the survival of cheetahs."

Other CCF programs to save cheetahs include farmer training programs that teach predator coexistence and the raising and donation of Anatolian shepherds as guard dogs to protect newborn calves and flocks of sheep and goats.

"Even though CCF is in the middle of nowhere, it is a world-renowned research and educational complex that includes a veterinary clinic, research labs, classrooms and dormitories," Kobrinski said. "It has ties with universities, zoos and conservation organizations throughout the world. There is a lot of depth to CCF."

The reason for her latest trip to Namibia, she said, is to check out the possibility of pursuing studies for a doctorate program in conservation genetics at CCF.

"Cheetahs have low fertility rates, high birth defects and a poor auto immune system," Kobrinski said. "They are virtual clones with their DNA so similar that any disease could spell disaster for their survival."

In the United States, she continues her ties to CCF as the New Jersey-New York regional coordinator for CCF. She is responsible for providing education and fundraising activities. In October 2007 she organized a CCF benefit dinner and auction at the estate of Jen and Glen Axelrod in Colts Neck.

Kobrinski represented CCF at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for the launch of "Wildlands Philanthropy: The Great American Tradition" by Tom Butler. The book relates the stories of Americans who saved natural habitats and preserved them for future generations, including CCF's founder and executive director, Dr. Laurie Marker.

In October, Marker, the acknowledged world's expert on cheetahs, was visiting the Colts Neck home of Haim and Mildred Kobrinski, Ronit's parents. Marker was on an annual lecture and fundraising tour in the United States and was interviewed by phone there.

"Cheetahs are the most endangered of the big cats," said Marker, a native of Michigan who has studied cheetahs for more than 30 years. "CCF's holistic approach includes respect for the needs of people and not only respect for cheetahs. That's what makes it work."

Marker's work was documented in SmithsonianMagazine (March 2008). It stated that in 2002 at the age of 48, she earned a doctorate of philosophy degree from Oxford University. Her thesis, "Aspects of Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) Biology, Ecology and Conservation Strategies on Namibian Farmlands," is considered the final word on cheetahs to date.

"While the stock market may be running out of resources now, our natural resources are running out, too," Marker said. "We know the problems and have the solutions, but we are running out of time."

The Cheetah Conservation Fund was founded by Marker in 1991 and is a registered nonprofit organization. For further information contact Ronit Kobrinski at ronitdaisy@gmail.com or click on www.cheetah.org.