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Cheetahs

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A cheetah

Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are members of the subfamily Felinae of the family Felidae. As a species, the cheetah is the fastest terrestrial animal. Cheetahs are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

Quotes

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  • I have seen a bat-eared fox chased by a cheetah suddenly turn round and face its pursuer uttering a series of blood-curdling snarls. The cheetah came to a a sudden halt, backed, and then bounded away, with the little fox following for about 10 to 15 m (avg. 43 ft) before it turned and ran in the opposite direction.
  • ... The cheeta, after felling the antelope, seizes it by the throat, and when the keeper comes up, he cuts its throat and collects some of the blood in the wooden ladle from which it is always fed: this is offered to the cheeta, who drops his hold, and laps it up eagerly, during which the hood is cleverly slipped on again. My tame cheeta, when hungry or left alone (for it appeared unhappy when away from the dogs and with no one near it), had a plaintive cry, which Blyth appropriately calls a "bleat-like mew." Shikarees always assert that if taken as cubs they are useless for training, till they have been taught by their parents how to pull down their prey. This opinion is corroborated, in part at least, by my experience with the tame one mentioned above.
  • With illegal trade in elephant and rhino 'products' dominating the headlines, the trade in live cheetahs seem to have slipped under the radar. It is only recently that the general public has been alerted to the scandalous and illegal trade in cheetah cubs to the Middle East, where they are prized as exotic pets. Typically cubs are capture in East Africa and shipped to Yemen for onward travel. Less than 50 per cent of the cubs survive the journey.

Ph.D. thesis (2002) by Laurie Marker

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  • The cheetah is considered one of the earliest divergences in felid evolution, about 8.5 million years ago, compared to the large cats of the Panthera group, which still shared a common ancestor about 6 million years ago (Adams 1979, Hemmer 1978, Johnson and O'Brien 1997, Neff 1983, Pecon-Slattery and O'Brien 1998, van Valkenburgh et al. 1990). The species known as Acinonyx pardinensis (Adams 1979), which is larger than the modern species, migrated from North America to Asia, India, Europe, and Africa. The modern cheetah evolved into its present form about 200,000 years ago. Genetic research has shown that today’s cheetah populations are descendants of but a few animals that remained after the Pleistocene era about 10,000 years ago, at which point the population experienced a founder event generally referred to as a population bottleneck (Menotti-Raymond and O'Brien 1993, O'Brien et al. 1985, O'Brien et al. 1983). The cheetah somehow survived this time of mass extinction and the population gradually increased.
  • Due to the cheetah’s specialisation for speed, it has developed many morphological and physiological adaptations. For aerodynamics, it has a small head, lightweight and thinly-boned skull, flat face, and a reduced length of muzzle that allows the large eyes to be positioned for maximum binocular vision, enlarged nostrils, and extensive air-filled sinuses (Ewer 1973). Its body is narrow and lightweight with long, slender feet and legs and specialised muscles, which act, simultaneously, for high acceleration and allow for greater swing to the limbs (Hildebrand 1959, Hildebrand 1961, Neff 1983). The cheetah is the only cat with short, blunt claws, which lack skin sheaths, making the claws semi-retractable, thus providing added traction like a sprinter’s cleats (Ewer 1973).
    • Laurie Marker, Ph.D thesis, p. 4
  • During his 49-year reign as an Indian Mogul in the 16th century, Akbar the Great had more than 39,000 cheetahs in total, which were called Khasa or the Imperial Cheetahs, and he kept detailed records of them (Caro 1994, Guggisberg 1975). However, all the cheetahs kept for hunting and coursing purposes were taken out of the wild from free-ranging populations. Because of this continuous drain on the wild populations, the numbers of cheetahs declined throughout Asia. In the early 1900s, India and Iran began to import cheetahs from Africa for hunting purposes (Pocock 1939).
    In Africa, the cheetah was important to many local ethnic groups: the San hunting communities of southern Africa ate cheetah meat for speed; traditional healers used cheetah foot bones for fleet-footedness; and kings wore cheetah skins for dignity (Nowell and Jackson 1996, Wrogemann 1975). These practices, combined with exportation to other countries, contributed to the beginning of the cheetah’s decline in Africa.
    • Laurie Marker, Ph.D. thesis, p. 8
  • Cheetah numbers throughout their ranges are declining due to loss and fragmentation of habitat, and a declining prey base (Nowell and Jackson 1996). Intra-guild competition from more aggressive predators decrease cheetah survivability in protected game reserves, causing larger numbers of cheetahs to live outside protected areas and therefore coming into conflict with humans (Caro 1994, Marker 1998, Nowell and Jackson 1996).
    As human populations change the landscape of Africa by increasing the numbers of livestock and fenced game farms throughout the cheetah’s range, addressing this conflict may become the most important factor in their conservation.
    • Laurie Marker, Ph.D. thesis, p. 9
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