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The cheetah is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with a continuing decline in population and habitat. Learn about its taxonomy, ecology, threats, conservation actions and more from the Red List assessment.
Our current goals, based on the IUCN Red List Strategic Plan (2021-2030), are to have 260,000 species assessed and to reassess 142,000 of those species to ensure the information on their status is up-to-date so that we can monitor trends in change of status.
- Habitat Loss
- Conflict with Humans
- Illegal Trade
- Reproductive Issues
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Most wild cheetahs live in areas of Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, and Namibia and Botswana in southern Africa. The Asiatic cheetah also lives in Iran, but is critically endangered. Cheetahs have become extinct in at least 13 countries over the past 50 years, according to Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Ins...
As human development encroaches on their habitat, cheetahs now are commonly found living on the edge of farmland. Cheetahs tend to prefer hunting wild prey over killing livestock. But in some cases, older, injured, or inexperienced cats will stalk cows, sheep, and goats. If wild game is limited in an area, a cheetah also might resort to hunting f...
For thousands of years, cheetahs have been kept as pets by some rich and elite members of society. Emperors, kings, and pharaoh kept them as symbols of power, and that practice continues today in some places. The illegal pet trade is most likely the main reason that the Asiatic cheetah is extinct through most of its former habitat, according to the...
Cheetahs are believed to have faced two bottleneck events in their history that drastically changed the size of their population, reports National Geographic. The remaining cats had to mate with each other to survive. This inbreeding through the years has led to low levels of genetic variation, making cheetahs more susceptible to disease and making...
Learn about the threats and challenges facing cheetahs, the world's fastest land animal. Find out how habitat loss, human conflict, illegal trade, and genetic issues affect their conservation status and future outlook.
May 4, 2023 · Overall status of cheetah. The IUCN Red List assesses cheetah as Vulnerable, with a global population of less than 7,000. Two thirds of these cheetah live outside protected areas sharing the habitats with people. Subspecies distribution. Five subspecies (Prost et al. 2022) Acinonyx jubatus venaticus. Acinonyx jubatus hecki.
Dec 27, 2016 · Based on these results, the study authors are calling for the cheetah’s status to be changed from “vulnerable” to “endangered” on the IUCN Red List. “These large carnivores, when they are...
Oct 20, 2023 · About 6,500 mature individuals remain in the wild, according to the most recent IUCN assessment in 2021, and they continue to decline. Southern and Eastern Africa are the strongholds of the current cheetah population. The Asiatic cheetah, however, is almost extinct.
Oct 19, 2023 · Cheetahs ( Acinonyx jubatus) have faced extinction at least two times in the past after their populations were reduced, leading to inbreeding. Once again, cheetahs face extinction today, due in part to surviving the past threats of extinction.
