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Cheetahs in southern Africa
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Species Profile
Image of adult cheetah sitting atop a stony surface.
Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are best known as being the fastest land animal, clocking in on average a top speed of 70 mph. They are built for speed with an elongated body, long legs, and flexible backbone & tail to make sharp turns. Cheetahs are also the only known feline to have semi-retractable claws. While dull, these claws help the cheetah gain traction and extra grip when running and executing sharp turns.
Cheetahs have a distinctive coat pattern, making them easier to identify on sight than other similar big cat species. With a tawny coat, their body is almost entirely covered in solid black dots while their face sports distinctive solid black "tear tracks" from the corners of their eyes. These tear tracks function as glare protection from the African sun. Their tail is usually white tipped with three solid black stripes at the end. As with most predators, a cheetah's coat helps them blend in with their environment to stalk their prey such as gazelles and get as close as possible before launching full speed to overtake them.
Cheetahs are known as being unique among the big cats due to several factors. One factor being that cheetahs can't roar. They're able to growl and purr among other vocalizations such as chirping or even barking. While often generally grouped with the big cat family (subfamily: Pantherinae), cheetahs actually fall under the other subfamily, Felinae, which includes other non-roaring cat species such as lynx, bobcats, servals, pumas, etc. Being the only cat species that can't fully retract its claws, cheetahs are the only species in its genus, Acinonyx. Cheetahs are also one of the oldest big cats; researchers have traced their ancestry back to the Miocene era, over 5 million years ago.
Current Status
Under the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 's, cheetahs are listed as vulnerable. This status means the species is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction of the species improve. Due to recent studies showing a significant decline in current cheetah numbers, scientists have started calling for the species to be up-listed to endangered status under the IUCN.
A coalition of males (photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Male_Cheetahs,_Maasai_Mara_%2843941746162%29.jpg)
Cheetahs, however, are elusive by nature, preferring to stay solitary or in small groups of 3-5 and have expansive territories. Groups of cheetahs are known as coalitions, exclusively male, and almost always consist of brothers. Females are usually solitary. Their secretive nature coupled with already being a small population makes it difficult to properly assess current numbers of wild individuals. A cheetah's hunting range also spreads across country boundaries and continuously changes, making it difficult to organize conservation efforts and cooperation between countries a necessity.
Population Map
At the turn of the 19th century, cheetahs had an estimated population of over 100,000 spread out through Africa and Asia.
There are estimated to be only 7,1000 cheetahs left in the wild throughout the world today. Historically modern cheetahs used to be found throughout Africa and Asia, but now have vanished from 90% of their home range in Africa. In Asia, only one isolated population of maybe 50 individuals still exists in central Iran.
The largest cheetah population (~4,000 individuals) can be found in southern Africa, spanning across Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia. The map below demonstrates the distribution of cheetahs in southern Africa. Each orange dot is an observation of at least one or more cheetahs.
If you choose to click on one of the orange dots below, a pop-up will appear showing where the observation took place, the observer, number of cheetahs observed, country, and even latitude and longitude coordinates. The data here was sourced from a unique study ( Weise & Vijay et al .) looking at new methods to survey endangered species. The main purpose of their study was to present other methods of assessing the population status of cheetahs, chosen because they're not only a vulnerable species but difficult to collect accurate data on. In addition, their population estimate for confirmed cheetah presence areas is 11% lower than the IUCN's current assessment for the same area.
Cheetah Distribution in Southern Africa
Habitat
Cheetahs usually inhabit open grassland and savannah as it gives them the room necessary to run at top speed and stalk their prey.
Savannah at sunset (photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Savanna_Grasslands_(199168845).jpeg)
Conflicts with Humans
As shown above, cheetahs don't stay within protected areas, but who can blame them? Like any predator, they must follow their prey and they can't tell the difference between a wild prey animal and cattle. Nevertheless, this is a major point of conflict between farmers and cheetahs with cheetahs being persecuted for preying on livestock. Habitat fragmentation is another serious concern as savannahs and grassland are converted to farmland or developed. This loss of natural habitat affects their usual prey, too which exacerbates the human-carnivore conflict as cheetahs must look for food elsewhere like farms.
Two cheetah cubs in grass (photo credit: www.flickr.com/photos/sumofmarc/6299043933)
The cheetah population also struggles with wildlife trafficking and poaching. Cubs are taken and smuggled into the exotic pet trade and adults are poached for their unique furs.
Threats
Other threats include competition from larger, more aggressive predators, low rates of reproduction, and climate change. Cheetahs are quick on their feet, but timid as predators. Being smaller than other predators, scavengers like lions, hyenas, jackals, and vultures can easily steal their hard-won meal.
Cheetahs have low rates of reproduction which is also thought to be exacerbated by climate change. Due to surviving two bottleneck events, or events that rapidly declined a species' population, in the past, modern cheetahs have low genetic diversity and males have low sperm counts. As a result, while cheetahs are capable of reproducing year-round, successful reproduction after mating is not guaranteed.
Conservation
Efforts are being made by several organizations to ensure the lasting survival of the species. The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) based in Namibia is one such organization. One of the these programs, Future Farmers of Africa, CCF conducts has helped to mitigate the human-carnivore conflict between cheetahs and farmers. Future Farmers of Africa trains in livestock and wildlife management, helping farmers practice sustainable land-use practices as well as use non-lethal means of deterring cheetahs and other predators from their livestock.
African Wildlife Foundation is another organization that operates in different countries of Africa and has a broader focus.
Research
Most cheetah-centric research to date deals with genetics and census collection on the species. In terms of genetics, researchers from CCF are studying gene variability and relatedness of the species as a whole. In addition, they've collected hundreds of various samples, including sperm samples, that have been cryopreserved and stored. CCF is also a pioneer in reproductive science, being the first to produce an artificially-inseminated cheetah cub.
Cheetah sprinting (photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-cheetah-sprint.jpg)
CCF has come up with its own census-gathering methods that includes using scat detection dogs and a combination of radio telemetry, spoor track counts, and camera traps. And scat detection is exactly what it sounds like. Once the trained dog sniffs out cheetah scat, samples are collected and sent to the lab for analysis. Researchers extract DNA from the scat samples to identify individuals and look at population structure.
Weise & Vijay et al.'s study stressed the importance of citizen science as much of their data was collected from public sources. Though they do admit many of them came from well-visited protected areas. Even so, they made their data explicitly available, showcasing where cheetahs have been and even noting buffer zones where no observations had been seen, but it was likely to have a cheetah presence.
What makes this research even more significant is its applications to other endangered and threatened species. Even in the unfortunate event of losing cheetahs forever, their loss would not be in vain.