Cheetah on sand dune, Namib Desert, Namibia

The good news: A cheetah can go from zero to 45 miles an hour in just two and a half seconds. The bad news: They've gone from a healthy worldwide population of 100,000 to as few as 7,500 in a little over a century. Between a quarter and a third of those cheetahs live here in Namibia, more than in any other country. Not only that, but the southern African nation is a leader in preserving the future of this fast feline. The city of Otjiwarongo, Namibia, is home to the world's only center for cheetah genetics, where the first cheetah conceived through in-vitro fertilization was born in 2007. Hopefully with some help, these record-setting cats are on the fast track to recovery.