The Case of the Cheetah
Life can be tough when you are not king of the jungle. It's down right dangerous if you couple that less than exalted social status with a temperament comparable to the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz. Consider the case of the cheetah.
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Cheetahs are also as timid as they come, at least as far as the big cat predator family goes. They chirp instead of roar, and in the wild, they would much rather prefer switching to a new food source rather than fighting any other predator for it.
Like their leopard and jaguar cousins, cheetahs are among the spotted big cats. In fact, another common name for the cheetah is the hunting leopard. They are best known for being the fastest land animal in the world, capable of reaching a short sprint speed of seventy miles per hour. Yet even its swiftness of foot has not helped it keep apace with the slow and steady human encroachment on its habitat.
Categorically speaking, cheetahs are not a jungle animal. Grasslands, shrub lands and woodlands are their traditional domain. The wildlife on that domain, especially the gazelle, has been their traditional food source.
Because grasslands are also suited for farms and ranches, increased human populations led to increased domestication of the land for livestock grazing and such. Whereas once cheetahs roamed a territory covering most of the African continent and southwestern Asia, today their habitat has shrunk to a small area in Iran and a few areas in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
At the turn of the twentieth century, scientists estimate there were approximately one hundred thousand cheetahs living in the wild. Over time, their population began to diminish not only because of the domestication of their traditional habitat, but also because the ranchers and farmers considered the cheetah as a danger to their domesticated stocks and killed them as a stock protection measure.
Member states of the Convention on International Trades in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listed the cheetah on Appendix I (the most endangered list) in 1975. According to the Redlist of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the wild cheetah population currently ranges between nine and twelve thousand. Namibia is home to the largest cheetah population (approximately 2,500).
Recent history may not have shown man to be the cheetah's best friend, however, wildlife biologists also are quick to point out that cheetahs have not been their own best friends either. For reasons still not quite understood, cheetahs have evolved with a very limited genetic code, hindering their ability to reproduce strong offspring. Juvenile mortality rates in the wild are traditionally high and dwindling populations mean it's only more difficult to breed genetic diversity and strength into the species.
Man, of course, will be the cheetah's only hope for survival. Individual governments and governmental organizations such as CITES provide protection under legislative umbrellas that strictly limit cheetah hunting and trade.
Private groups, often in cooperation with governments, support cheetah conservation and breeding programs. One such organization, the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) also maintains a registry of male cheetahs worldwide in order to help improve genetic diversification efforts. Additionally, the CCF is developing innovative programs focusing on local cooperative efforts. Once such program deals with the Cheetah temperament issue. Because of their timidity, cheetahs would rather switch prey than deal with any potential trouble.
Picking up on this clue, CCF started The Anatolian Shepherd Livestock Guarding Dog Program, a program that trains these dogs to guard local livestock against predators, including the cheetah. The dogs are not attack dogs, rather they are trained to bark and posture in order to scare away predators, including the cheetah. Now in its eighth year, with some eighty dogs working on Namibian farms, the program offers a non-lethal livestock management alternative for framers.
© 2001. Patricia A. Michaels