They are mother nature’s precision, high-performance machine, designed to do one job and to do it with incredible skill and effectiveness. They can accelerate faster than a Ferrari, tearing up the ground from 0-75 mph in just 3 seconds, and they come with a self-grown paint-job that would make the fanciest of muscle cars blush with envy. That’s right, we’re talking about the Cheetah ! International Cheetah Day celebrates these incredible animals while raising awareness about their threat of extinction.
History of International Cheetah Day
As founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), Dr. Laurie Marker chose to commemorate Khayam, a cheetah she raised at the Wildlife Safari that she ran in Oregon, by establishing December 4th as International Cheetah Day in his memory.
Khayam served as part of an important experiment that helped in determining whether or not captive Cheetahs can be taught to hunt and live in the wild on their own after being in captivity. After a trip to Namibia, the experiment was proven successful. However, Dr. Marker and Khayam still returned home following the experiment, after observing that local hunters were eliminating wild cheetahs as a threat to their livelihood.
Driven by this encounter, Dr. Marker decided to move to Namibia to help heal the rift between farmers and the majestic cheetah. It was in 1990 that she founded the CCF. Cheetahs are incredible animals, being the fastest land mammal in the wild today. Sadly, though the numbers used to be significantly higher, there are only 8,000 of these creatures left in the wild today, a number that leaves them as Africa’s most endangered feline. Cheetahs hold their position as the world’s fastest land mammal, thanks to some tricks that have perfectly adapted them for high speed.
The cheetah’s full running speed is so fast that their feet only touch the ground once every 6 to 7 meters, and their muscular tail helps to steer them like a rudder at these high speeds. Needless to say, once a cheetah has prey in their sites, there’s no running away!
Facts About Cheetah
· · It is one of the oldest of the big cat species, with ancestors that can be traced back more than five million years to the Miocene era.
· Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetahs.
· The fastest land animal in the world, a cheetah can reach 112km/hin just three seconds.
· · In 1952, the Indian government officially declared the Cheetah extinct in the country. The cheetah is the only large carnivore to have gone extinct in India, primarily due to hunting and habitat loss.
· All cheetah subspecies are listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, except the Northwest African and Asiatic cheetah which are critically endangered at present.
Why Are Cheetahs Threatened?
Human/Wildlife Conflict
Surprisingly, cheetahs do not fare well in protected areas like national parks and wildlife reserves. This is because these areas normally contain high densities of other larger predators like the lion, leopard, and hyena, all of which compete with cheetahs for prey. Given the opportunity, those other predators will also prey on cheetahs and cheetah cub mortality can be as high as 90%.As a result, nearly 90 per cent of cheetahs in Africa live in open areas and on private farmlands and therefore often come into conflict with people. Cheetahs are killed in retaliation for livestock predation or because of their perceived threat to human livelihood.
Loss of Habitat
Cheetahs require vast expanses of land with suitable prey, water, and cover sources to survive. The cheetah’s movement across large areas of land depends on the availability of corridors and landscapes that are connected. As wild lands are destroyed and fragmented by human development and expansion, the cheetah’s available habitat is diminished. Numerous landscapes across Africa that once supported thousands of cheetahs now struggle with far fewer numbers
Illegal Wildlife/Pet Trade
Cheetah trafficking in the Horn of Africa has reached crisis status. Each year an estimated 300 cubs are illegally snatched from the landscape, taken from their mothers to supply the illegal wildlife/pet trade.
What can you do to help save the cheetah?
Very simply, getting money into the right hands ensures that resources can be purchased to continue the fight against cheetah extinction. Every cent really does count and so does every second. There are no restrictions on the things you can do (within the law) and here are just a few suggestions:
· Speak up! – Learn more about these amazing animals and tell everyone you meet to get stuck in and help.
· Celebrate International Cheetah Day on 4 December every year
· Campaign amongst your friends to raise funds for cheetah conservation in Namibia, and make a donation yourself.
· Have cake sales, hold a raffle, sell kisses if you like – but raise funds for these worthy charities however you can
· Support the CCF selfie program
· Buy Cheetah Country Beef and braai it on Bushbloks (biomass logs)
· Shop for gifts and souvenirs at the online cheetah charity shop
Cheetah Conservation Program
Once a new (or growing!) appreciation for these high-speed mammals has been developed, it’s time to start finding ways to help with their conservation. Many valuable and credible organizations have been striving to make a change for the better for these animals. Join in by volunteering or making a donation to one of these group.
Cheetah Conservation Fund
This organization (mentioned above) was founded in Namibia in 1990. Their website offers many options for education and donating, as well as purchasing resources that support the animals. In addition to simply making a donation, friends can actually sponsor a cheetah, whether monthly or for a full year
African Wildlife Foundation
Committed to protecting animals all over the continent of Africa, the AWF has been working toward solutions related to building communities and avoiding human-wildlife conflict
Big Cat Conservation
An organization in the UK, this group supports projects that help a variety of Big Cats around the world.
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By
Nikita Joshi
2nd year
Bsc(H) Chemistry
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