Cheetahs getting close to extinction

Science Silvia Meyer
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Being the fastest land animal in the world isn’t helping the Cheetah to escape the danger of extinction, as it revealed in a recent study.

There seem to be only 7,100 cheetahs left in the world, according to the study headed by author Sarah Durant from the Zoological Society of London.

The danger appeared in the last 100 years, as there were an estimated 100,000 cheetahs at the end of the 19^th century, according to numbers provided by the National Wildlife Federation.

The remnants of the species are located mostly in Africa with the exception of a small number in Iran. Groups of wild cheetahs show signs of dwindling population as, for example, Zimbabwe went from 1,200 animals to 170 in only 16 years, which is an 85 percent loss.

“Given the secretive nature of this elusive cat, it has been difficult to gather hard information on the species, leading to its plight being overlooked,” Durant stated. “Our findings show that the large space requirements for cheetah, coupled with the complex range of threats faced by the species in the wild, mean that it is likely to be much more vulnerable to extinction than was previously thought.”

The main danger for the cheetahs is a human one. Be it from loss of habitat, due to the human population, or hunting in retaliation for livestock loss, the antelope population is also down which is the cheetah’s main prey, there is a thriving illegal trade of cheetah cubs or the traffic of cheetah skins.