The world’s fastest land animal, the cheetah, survived the extinsion of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in just a few decades man has managed to put the animal on the endangered species list, and experts are warning that the cheetah could be extinct by 2030.

The cheetah’s number decline is not due to poaching but the cat’s poor ability to adapt in wildlife reserves, as its natural habitat is being wiped away. Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia said:

Cheetahs don’t do well in protected wildlife reserves due to increased competition from other larger predators, such as lions and hyenas, which thrive in protected areas.

Most protected areas are unable to maintain viable cheetah populations.

In the early 20th century the global population of the cheetah was close to 100,000. Today there are only 10,000 in the wild in Africa. There is a small population in Iran, but it is critically endangered. According to NGO, Panthera 77% of cheetahs have disappeared from their original territory. The southern African species is listed as vulnerable on the International Union of the Conservation of Nature. Marker said:

The main limitation to the survival of the species in the wild is reduction and fragmentation of habitat as well as human wildlife conflict.

The cheetah may the fastest animal on land, but they often lose confrontations with lions and leopards, and often the cats prey gets stolen before it has had a chance to feed. For the cheetah to survive, it needs open land and low density of carnivores.

Another of the cheetah’s handicaps is inbreeding. As a result of the ice age, cheetah numbers plummeted, resulting in inbreeding. This means that almost every cheetah is closely related – a little too closely related for healthy breeding.

A short-term solution to the decline in population is the raising of tamed animals in captivity. The Ann van Dyk Chettah Centre near Joahnnesburg is a pioneer of this approach. The centre has seen 800 births since the 1970’s.

Marker said:

Our research and experience shows that even wild cheetahs that have not had at least 18 months of life with a mother in their natural habitat have a difficult time being re-wilded. They simply don’t learn the survival skills necessary to sustain themselves in the wild.

A cheetah born in captivity, one that never has the experience of living in the wild with its mother, would have virtually no chance of success if released.

We’d like to see the cheetah’s range increasing, with populations linked with each other through corridors, and even see cheetahs reintroduced to former range countries.

[Source: Hosted News]