Why are there Labrador retrievers in this zoo's cheetah exhibit?

All right, there was a surprising bond that exists between cats and dogs, and it's on full display at zoos across the country. Dogs are making friends with the most endangered of the African big cats, the cheetah. Don Daler visited the Columbus Zoo to hear more about this really unlikely pairing. Deep in the heart of Africa exhibit at the Columbus Zoo, visitors gather every day to catch a glimpse of one of America's most popular animals, the Labrador Retriever. The number one question up here, this $40 million exhibit, are the dogs coming out? It's the number one question. Susie Rapp runs the zoo's animal programs. The Columbus Zoo built the world's most expensive Labrador Retriever exhibit in the world. The biggest dog run you've ever seen. The biggest dog run. But dogs like Kobe aren't alone in the exhibit. They share it with some pretty big cats, cheetahs. Though an unlikely pair, the animals get along like siblings. You place the puppy with the cubs, they think it's just their brother or their sister. What have you learned through the course of this program now? What I've learned is that we want our cheetahs to have all the confidence in the world, and we know we can't give it to them, but we know the dogs can. In addition to confidence, the dogs can offer comfort. When a cheetah named Kiara needed leg surgery earlier this year, Kobe helped her recuperate, providing the kind of support you'd expect from a best friend. Without him, I don't know that we could have pulled this off. She will be fantastic. She will do great. I could not say that if we didn't have that relationship with the dog. Rooksa, let's go. This affectionate bond between cat and dog, Good boy. on display at zoos across the country, is a way to promote the life-saving role dogs play for cheetahs in the wild. How it's saving cheetahs is not being its buddy. There's a specific dog in Africa that's actually saving cheetahs, and it's called the Anatolian Shepherd. Anatolian Shepherds act as livestock guard dogs for African farmers. They are provided by the Cheetah Conservation Fund through support of partners like the Columbus Zoo, where Jack Hanna is director emeritus. You may see in history that this dog could be responsible for saving a cheetah from extinction. That is one heck of a story right there. Because the Anatolian Shepherd is a big dog with a big bark, farmers use them to scare cheetahs off their land, as opposed to trapping or shooting them. They're the ones the cheetah go, wow. Cheetah's not going to mess with them. No. They're going to turn around and go find easier food. That bark and the size of them, they're gone. The simple solution, started by the Cheetah Conservation Fund in 1994, has helped grow the cheetah population in Namibia from 2,500 to nearly 4,000. We all woke up. In Africa, they've woken up. They know the cheetah has problems. So you think the dogs are going to turn this around? You think the dogs are going to save the cheetahs by discouraging them from eating the farmers' cattle? That's with the farmers. Poachers now, that has declined a great deal. You'll have poaching, it's like everything in the world, I'm sorry to say. I believe the dog will help, not will, is helping a great deal to control the hunting of the cheetah, as well as trapping it. The cheetah now has got to come back. So if you happen to see dogs and cheetahs palling around at your local zoo this summer, you'll be able to appreciate the significance of their friendship.