Rapid declines in the cheetah population have the world’s fastest land animal speeding towards possible extinction, conservationists from the Zoological Society of London and their colleagues reported this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
According to BBC News and USA Today, the new report estimated that there are currently only 7,100 cheetahs left alive in the world – a far cry from the approximately 100,000 that roamed the Earth at the tail end of the 19th century, based on National Wildlife Federation statistics.
In fact, lead study author Sarah Durant and her fellow researchers found that 14 of the 18 groups of wild cheetahs living in Africa that they studied were on the decline – none more severely than those living in Zimbabwe, which have fallen 85% (from 1,200 to 170) over the past 16 years.
Furthermore, cheetahs in Asia have essentially been wiped out, they added, and a population that lives in Iran is believed to number less than 50 at this moment. Based on their research, the ZSL-led team is calling for an urgent re-classification of the species from vulnerable to endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
As Durant explained in a statement, “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.”
‘Concerted action’ needed to save the world’s fastest land animal
The cheetah is one of the widest-ranging carnivores in the world, the authors said, which means that they tend to roam far beyond the protected areas that have been established for them. In fact, more than 75% of their habitat lies outside of parks and wildlife reserves, BBC News said.
For this reason, they are increasingly entering lands that are being developed for agriculture, and their prey is on the decline due to bushmeat hunting, the UK media outlet added. In addition, the illegal trade of cheetah cubs as pets, the increased selling of their skins and the threat of being hit by fast-moving vehicles have all contributed to their population decline, the study found.
“This study represents the most comprehensive analysis of cheetah status to date. 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,” said Durant. “Concerted action” was needed to “reverse ongoing declines in the face of accelerating land use changes across the continent,” she added.
“We’ve just hit the reset button in our understanding of how close cheetahs are to extinction,” added Dr. Kim Young-Overton, director of the cheetah program for Panthera, a group that was also involved in the study. “The take-away from this pinnacle study is that securing protected areas alone is not enough. We must think bigger, conserving across the mosaic of protected and unprotected landscapes that these far-reaching cats inhabit, if we are to avert the otherwise certain loss of the cheetah forever.”
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Image credit: Thinkstock
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