FACTORS AFFECTING CHEETAH DECLINE

The main threat facing cheetahs is man; from hunting, poaching, loss of habitat and conflict with farmers. They also suffer from a reduced genetic diversity, and face difficulties from other predators.

Due to human development the cheetah’s normal prey are being forced out of their natural habitat, resulting in the cheetahs feeding on farmer’s livestock. Farmers shoot or trap the cheetahs, often in very inhumane ways. This land development has also resulted in a dramatic reduction in space for the cheetahs to hunt and live on.

“Most African governments impose little restrictions on farmers using cages to catch cheetahs. If one member of a cheetah group is caught, farmers typically leave the animal inside and set other cages around it. Almost invariably, the rest of the group will be caught over subsequent days.”

Cheetahs are on the bottom rung of the predator hierarchy, as they are the smallest and lightest of the big cats. They are cowardly, and will avoid confrontation whenever possible. This results in them losing their kills to other predators, such as lions and hyaenas.

“Their light build and small teeth make them very vulnerable to attacks by other predators, and their kills are stolen by lions, spotted hyaenas, brown hyaenas, leopards and even warthogs. In Kruger NP cheetahs lose 14% of their kills to spotted hyaenas.”

The low rate of cub survival due to attacks from other predators, such as lions, baboons, hyaenas and leopards is another problem facing cheetahs.
“Cheetah cubs are very vulnerable: in the Serengeti lions kill about 70% of them, and only 5% live to independence.”4 With so few making it to adulthood, cheetahs are unable to raise the population figures to a safe level.

Approximately 10,000 years ago there was a significant climatic event, which decimated the cheetah populations, reducing it to a few individuals.
From these individuals, all cheetahs are descended, and this has resulted in much inbreeding and low genetic diversity. Due to this inbreeding, cheetahs suffer from weaker bone structure, complications with development and growth, and significantly reduced sperm counts.

“Sometime around the late Pleistocene, cheetahs were apparently reduced to a handful of individuals…the timing for the bottleneck does coincide with a wave of mammalian extinctions around the world. Together with the wholesale die-off of many ungulate species, the end of the Pleistocene saw the extinction of the California sabre-tooth and the lion in America…it seems that the cheetah came perilously close to succumbing. The few survivors salvaged the species, but their legacy has been the ‘founder-effect’ – greatly diminished heterogeneity among their descendants because the genetic complement from a handful of founders is all that endured.”

Feline disease is also a big threat to cheetahs, and should there be a sudden outbreak, it could potentially eliminate the entire cheetah population.

“A species that loses its immune diversity carries a genetic axe suspended over its head, awaiting the next emerging fatal virus, bacteria, or parasite to appear.”

Humans feel that cheetah pose a threat to them and have therefore killed numerous cheetahs unnecessarily. However, it has been recorded that cheetahs have never attacked humans. Humans have also killed cheetahs for their skins and for use in traditional medicines.