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Acinonyx jubatus
– Vulnerable
Taxonomy
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Kingdom:
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ANIMALIA
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Phylum:
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CHORDATA
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Class:
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MAMMALIA
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Order:
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CARNIVORA
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Family:
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FELIDAE
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Scientific Name:
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Acinonyx jubatus
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Species Authority:
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(Schreber, 1775)
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Infra-specific Taxa Assessed:
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See Acinonyx jubatus ssp. venaticus
See Acinonyx jubatus ssp. hecki
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Common Name/s:
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CHEETAH (Eng)
HUNTING LEOPARD (Eng)
GUÉPARD (Fre)
CHITA (Spa)
GUEPARDO (Spa)
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Assessment Information
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Red List Category & Criteria:
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VU C2a(i) ver 3.1 (2001)
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Year Assessed:
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2002
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Assessor/s:
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Cat Specialist Group
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Evaluator/s:
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Nowell, K., Breitenmoser, U., Breitenmoser, C. & Jackson, P. (Cat Red List Authority)
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Justification:
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Based on estimates of density and geographic range (Nowell and Jackson 1996), the cheetah’s total effective population size is estimated at below 10,000 mature breeding individuals, with a declining trend due to habitat and prey base loss and persecution, and no subpopulation containing more than 1,000 mature breeding individuals.
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History:
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| 1986 | - | Vulnerable (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1986) |
| 1988 | - | Vulnerable (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988) |
| 1990 | - | Vulnerable (IUCN 1990) |
| 1994 | - | Vulnerable (Groombridge 1994) |
| 1996 | - | Vulnerable (Baillie and Groombridge 1996) |
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Geographic Range
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Range Description:
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Cheetahs are thinly distributed throughout the drier regions of sub-Saharan Africa.
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Countries:
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Native:
Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Egypt; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Kenya; Malawi; Mali; Mauritania; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Somalia; South Africa; Sudan; Swaziland; Tanzania, United Republic of; Togo; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe
Regionally extinct:
Burundi; India; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Israel; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Lebanon; Pakistan; Saudi Arabia; Syrian Arab Republic; Tajikistan; Tunisia; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan; Yemen
Possibly extinct regionally:
Afghanistan; Algeria; Iraq; Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Morocco; Senegal; Western Sahara
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Population
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Population:
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They have become extinct in the 20th century from large parts of their range in North Africa and Southwest Asia, and in these regions they are now restricted to small isolated populations (Nowell and Jackson 1996). Cheetahs are Critically Endangered on a regional basis in Iran, where the population is estimated at approximately 50 mature individuals, and North Africa, where no populations hold more than 50 mature individuals, the total is approximately 250, and declining.
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Population Trend:
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Habitat and Ecology
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Habitat and Ecology:
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Cheetahs are the fastest land mammals, and catch their prey, principally gazelles, in high speed chases usually between 80-112 km/hr over distances of hundreds of metres. Other prey include other small-medium sized adult ungulates and their young, as well as small prey such as hares, and also, increasingly, livestock. While cheetah females and some adult males are solitary, male brothers remain together in adulthood. Cheetahs have large home ranges on the order of 800-1,500 km² and are semi-nomadic, ranging widely to follow prey movements and avoid other large competing predators (Nowell and Jackson 1996).
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System:
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Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine
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Threats
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Threats:
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A. jubatus is threatened indirectly by loss of prey base through human hunting activities and directly because it is considered to be a threat to livestock. Livestock overgrazing has a negative effect on the habitat. Cheetahs may suffer from the associated risks of low genetic diversity from a hypothetical bottleneck that occurred 10,000 years ago. Low population densities make cheetahs vulnerable to human induced threats (Nowell and Jackson 1996).
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Conservation Actions
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Conservation Actions:
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This species is listed on Appendix I of CITES and is protected under National legislation throughout most of its extant and some of its former range. It occurs in a large number of protected area (Nowell and Jackson 1996).
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