Species Hang in the Balance

BINOMIAL NAME:

Acinonyx Jubatus

ANATOMICAL PROPORTIONS:

6.5 -7.5 ft. long (tip-to-tail) / 2-3 ft.s tall/ 80-120 lbs

POPULATION (APPROXIMATE):

15,000

CONSERVATION STATUS:

VULNERABLE

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT:

African savanna, Southeast Asian grasslands

DIET:

Small mammals (especially antelope), and sometimes game birds

SPECIES THREATS:

The cheetah, like many large carnivores, struggles to maintain sufficient habitat, due to human encroachment.

Cheetahs fall victim to depredation across Africa, and are (often wrongly) suspected of poaching livestock; they become arbitrary targets for disgruntled farmers (and farmers are far more likely to lose their stock to lions or leopards).

Because cheetahs are the least imposing of the large preditors in Africa, they are constantly, physically outranked by their predatory peers (lions, leopards, hyenas, and even a small wake of vultures can intimidate a cheetah off of its kill). Therefore, cheetahs typically feed on approximately 50% of all successful game-runs. Because of their inferior size, mother cheetahs are also less capable of protecting their young from infanticide and predation, making infant mortality close to 90%.

Though at one time they were poached for their spotted hide, the cheetah is now widely protected across Africa, and so poaching is perhap one of the least menacing threats to this species' survival.

UNIQUE FACTS:

The Cheetah is the fastest quadraped on earth, and can reach speeds of up to 70 mph. Because of its highly aerobic style of predation, the cheetah has a streamlined figure, an enlarged heart and lungs, and no retractable claws (acting like cleats, and giving the cheetah the necessary traction to reach such blazing speeds).

Cheetahs also purr, in the same way that domestic cats do---both while breathing in, as well as breathing out---and they are the only big cats to do this. It's easy to see why, especially taking into consideration their docile disposition around people, the early Egyptians frequently kept cheetahs as pets and hunting companions.

DEVOTED ORGANIZATION:

Cheetah Conservation Fund

• Make a General Donation
• Sponsor a Resident Cheetah
• Save a Wild Cheetah
• Sponsor a Livestock Guarding Dog
• CCF Apparel/Merchendise

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