The Saharan cheetah is one of the world’s rarest big cats. At face value, that isn’t all that surprising. Deserts are harsh environments that support few large herbivores, which means there are even fewer carnivores around. But if we’ve learned anything about ecology, it’s that healthy ecosystems require the survival of apex predators; they keep […]
Tag: Acinonyx jubatus
Race for Survival
Who will win in this race for survival? With fewer than 12,500 individuals left in the wild, the Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is in a race for it’s very existence and perhaps in the long run on the losing end of this battle. With extremely high cub mortality rates, loss of habitat and poor defences in […]
86 percent of big animals in the Sahara Desert are extinct or endangered
Bigger than all of Brazil, among the harshest ecosystems on Earth, and largely undeveloped, one would expect that the Sahara desert would be a haven for desert wildlife. One would anticipate that big African animals—which are facing poaching and habitat loss in other parts of the world—would thrive in this vast wilderness. But a new […]
Cheetahs’ Iranian revival cheers conservationists
Asiatic cheetahs, a subspecies of the fastest animal on earth, are extinct everywhere except in Iran, where they are considered to be critically endangered. But marking a rare success, conservationists at the Persian wildlife heritage foundation (PWHF) have spotted a group of five Asiatic cheetahs (also known as Iranian cheetahs) – a mother with four […]
Doi Inthanon
My trip to Thailand has been spent mostly with the family, which together with adverse rainy-season weather has left little time for photography. However I did get the family together for a quick day trip to Doi Inthanon, and the weather cooperated nicely. I had a quick look at Checkpoint 2, where a group of […]
Cheetah don’t overheat during hunts
In a 4,500 hectare cheetah rehabilitation camp in the middle of Namibia, researchers observe the large, spotted carnivores as they readjust to wild life. This week one such researcher, physiologist Robyn Hetem from the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, used her observations to disprove a theory about cheetah that has been treated as common […]
Asiatic cheetahs: on the road to extinction?
Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are unique among large cats. They have a highly specialized body, a mild temperament, and are the fastest living animals on land. Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, the Asiatic subspecies, is unique among cheetahs and the only member of five currently living subspecies to occur outside of Africa. Listed as Critically Endangered on the […]