Endangered Species: Cheetah | Dell Cheetah Centre

Endangered Species Cheetah

As An Endangered Species, Cheetah Still Has A Long Way To Go Before It Will Be Out Of Danger

Listed as an endangered species, cheetah populations have been dwindling and there are several reasons for this state of affairs:

Hunting: incredibly, there are still people out there who hunt these beautiful animals.
Loss of habitat: human encroachment has reduced the cheetah's habitat.
Loss of prey: this is essentially directly linked to the loss of habitat.
A limited genetic diversity: cheetah males have a low sperm count, because the cheetah is much inbred as a species.
Livestock protection: many farmers poison, shoot and trap cheetahs on their land because they believe the cheetahs are preying on their livestock, even though cheetahs mainly hunt small to medium antelope.

Fascinating Animals

It is a tragedy that they are an endangered species, because cheetahs are wondrous and fascinating animals capable of amazing feats. They are widely recognised as the fastest animals on land in the world and over short distances of half a kilometre or less; they can sometimes reach speeds of up to 120 km/h. Although they are mostly solitary animals, some males form coalitions; alternatively, a female may be seen with her cubs. Cheetahs should not be confused with leopards, which differ from them in all important aspects like build, habitat, prey species, hunting technique and time, appearance and vocalisations.

Help us Save the Cheetah

We are very concerned that due to their status as an endangered species, cheetah may become extinct and our small team is passionate about cheetahs and we work tirelessly to prevent this from happening. We have been working with the Savannah Cheetah Foundation since 2001 and our centre was established in 2009 as an ongoing drive in cheetah conservation. Our successful efforts in breeding and hand-raising twenty cheetahs so far had gone a long way towards preventing organisations from taking cheetahs from the wild.

Reintroducing Cheetahs Back into the Wild

We are now also working on a reintroduction programme where we want to release captive bred cheetahs back into the wild through a carefully planned, three-phase project. This has never before been attempted in the world and it is an extremely exciting project for everyone involved. This programme is of crucial importance, because none of the efforts so far have been proven effective in stopping cheetah numbers from decreasing and without radical intervention, total extinction is the only possible outcome. As an endangered species, cheetah still has a long way to go.

Endangered Species Cheetah

Are you interested in volunteering at the Dell Cheetah Centre and helping us save the cheetah?