Cheetah meow is part of their rich vocal repertoire

Cheetahs have a rich vocal repertoire. And before I go any further, I'm going to stress the fact that it includes a meow which is very like that of the domestic cat. It's a bit louder and a little bit wilder but unmistakably a genuine meow, which doesn't surprise me one bit because this large wild cat species really does have some domestic cat traits. 

Captive cheetah meowing. Screenshot.

I've just seen a picture of a cheetah cosying up to a photographer. In the photo the cheetah has a GPS collar around their neck and it's in the wild but they decided that they would like to have a bit of human company. They can be like that sometimes. 

It is why, hundreds of years ago, they were tamed to hunt with rich humans in India and other Asian countries for sport. They are therefore tameable and somewhat domesticatable but don't think that they make good pets because they do not.

My thanks to the TikToker 'renn' for the video below.

The cheetah also has a yelp which is a brief, high-pitched yow sounding vocalisation which can travel some distance. A scientist, Mr R McLaughlin, said that he heard the yelp 2 km away.

When the cheetah utters this sound, they open and close their mouth rapidly while their abdomen and head jerk with the effort.

It is a contact call normally made by the mother who has been separated from her cubs or by young cheetahs who have lost their mother or siblings. That information is according to Mr J Kingdon (1977).

Another contact call would be the churr. This sound is used by mothers to call or encourage their offspring and by male cheetahs to relocate their siblings or coalition partners and also in a variety of other circumstances according to Mr TM Caro (1994).

The churr is also called a "stutter". It can indicate that the female is in heat (oestrus) and when males use the stutter, they do so to indicate an interest in a female according to Mr TM Caro (1993).

The cheetah also gurgles. This is a friendly close-range vocalisation. That information, by the way, come from Mr G Peters (1984).

Further, cheetahs occasionally growl when involved in agonistic encounters at a kill. They also moan when they are attacked or threatened by other cheetahs, leopards or lions. That information comes from a variety of researchers/scientists including TM Caro mentioned above.

And finally, the cheetah purrs like a domestic cat during friend encounters and after a meal or when resting. Of course, the cheetah purr is much louder than that of the domestic cat.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

What does Acinonyx mean?

Acinonyx is the first half of the Latin, scientific name for the cheetah. The full name is "Acinonyx jubatus". Because of its anatomical peculiarities, the cheetah is always placed alone in a separate genus, and sometimes even in a separate sub-family of the Felidae. 

Cheetah mom and cubs. Image: Pixabay.

According to Dr. Desmond Morris:

"There is no specific record as to why the cheetah was given this name in 1828, but it has been assumed that the word was derived from the Greek akaina and onux, meaning 'thorn-claw', referring to the fact that its feet are visible, unsheathed claws."

An alternative theory is that it may have been derived from the Greek a and kineo which means without movement. This is another reference to the cheetah's claws which are an exception within the cat family. 

Saying the word:

The claws not entirely unsheathed but they don't operate like a domestic cat's claws which are retracted and then protracted (extended). They remain out so that the cheetah can grip the ground firmly as they have to weave left and right and run at maximum speed to chase fast prey animals. The cheetah's claws remain visible hence the name.

The species name jubatus is from the Latin which means having a crest or mane. This is because cheetah cubs have a crest on the back of their heads and along the spine (see above) until it grows out when they become adults.

Rewilding of India with cheetahs is becoming a failure

Cheetahs were once widespread in India. They became extinct in 1952 due to habitat loss and their persecution by sport hunters. They are the only predator to become extinct in India since that country's independence in 1947. They want cheetahs back in India and the only way they can achieve it is to import them from Africa which is what they've done. But relocating cheetahs from one continent to another is very risky as is being proven.

Imported cheetah from Namibia to India waiting to be released into the Kuno NP. Image: AP.

The Independent newspaper tell me that India has "borrowed" 20 cheetahs from Africa; I presume Namibia where there is the highest population of cheetahs in the world. The word "borrowed" is incorrect. That's obvious. They are a gift from I believe Namibia but these precious cheetahs are finding it too hard to survive. The project the rewilding is called Project Cheetah and was started on Sept 17th, 2022.

The project the rewilding injure with cheetahs is taking place in Kuno National Park. There have now been eight fatalities. The authorities have confirmed of yet another cheetah death bringing the total to 8 in four months.

The most recent death is of a cheetah named Suraj (which means "sun"). This cat's death comes just five days after the country lost its seventh whose name was Tejas (meaning brilliance). This cheetah died of traumatic shock caused by injuries to their neck. Ironically the injuries were caused by a fight with a female cheetah and not by an existing predator within the park.

The report tells me that it is not clear as yet as to why the cheetah died. It must either be an attack from another predator or ill-health. There appears to have been two shipments from Africa. The first shipment was of eight cheetahs and the second was of 12 which occurred in February.

One of them was a female who became pregnant and gave birth in March to 4 cubs. Three of them died. These deaths have been counted into the tally of eight fatalities so far.

I'm told that 15 adult cheetahs remain in the park together with a single surviving cub who is now nearly 5 months old and being reared in captivity. The project was always seen as ambitious. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which indicates its importance to India.

The project is indicative of how very difficult it is to play catch up in conservation. In 1952 India was a different place. The population of India in 2021 was 1.4 billion. In 1952 the population was 373 million. 

The human population of India has more than tripled over the ensuing time which makes it even more difficult to introduce a new species into the country. There's going to be more habitat loss because of the gradual encroachment of new human settlements and commercial activity. 

As mentioned, habitat loss was one reason why the cheetah became extinct in the country in the first place.

Although India does have some good national parks (reserves) although these are often tiger reserves.

Negative comment in video:

Are there cheetahs in India? YES, from September 17, 2022.

Until September 17, 2022, you would have to answer the question in the title with a very positive NO because the same subspecies of cheetah that is found in Iran in very small numbers, was also present in India in the 1940s but the last cheetah in the wild in India was recorded in 1948 and they were declared extinct in that country in 1952. 

Image: ANI/Unsplash

The last cheetahs were shot in the Sal forests of Koriya District, Chhattisgarh, which seems incredibly careless of the authorities and the individual person who shot them because they were the last ones in the country! An example of anti-conservation of the highest calibre.

But you may have heard that the authorities have taken the bold step of relocating cheetahs from Namibia, Africa, which is essentially the home of the cheetah in the world. A special cargo flight bringing eight cheetahs landed at the Indian Air Force Station in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. India's Prime Minister, Miranda Modi, will release them into Kuno National Park. Update: he had his camera with him with a telephoto lens to capture the moment of release.

He will release them on his birthday, which is this Saturday. The cheetahs have travelled more than 8000 km in a specially modified passenger 747 jumbo jet.

Below is a video of one of the cheetahs about to be flown from Namibia to India. They make such a sweet meow sound. I feel sorry for this cat. He or she is upset and wants to be back where she belongs.

The eight cheetahs are made up of five females and three males. Modi wants to revitalise and diversify India's wildlife under "Project Cheetah". The project is described as the world's first "inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project".

It appears that the first discussions about this translocation took place in 2009 when officials of the Cheetah Conservation Fund based in Namibia entered into discussions with the Indian government and subsequently the government ordered the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department to develop a separate space within Kuno National Park to accommodate the cheetahs.

It is worth mentioning that female cheetah ranges in Namibia are extremely large measuring 1500 km². However, the majority of male cheetahs in the Serengeti living coalitions and establish small territories of about 30 km² with good vegetative cover and a locally high abundance of antelope. The point that I'm making is this: is there enough space in this national park to accommodate eight cheetahs from Namibia?

The park is spread over 748 km². There are no human settlements in the park. They believe that it can sustain 21 cheetahs. The authorities relocated villages from inside the park to outside its boundaries perhaps in preparation for this translocation.

The relocation of these cheetahs is also a big move for Namibia as it is the first time the wild southern African cheetah been translocated anywhere else in the world. The project has a budget of US$5 million over a period of five years.

The big question is whether the cheetahs will survive or fail to reproduce over the five-year period. Some experts have voiced major concerns. One of those is Valmik Thapar. He is unsure whether they will survive in the wild in India.

He believes that India does not have the habitat or prey species for wild re-roaming cheetahs. And he believes that the authorities do not have sufficient experience or understanding to make it work. He believes that they will survive in the short term provided they are provided with food. He says that India was never the natural home of the African chetah.

Here is a BBC video on the topic:

Leopards move on to land reserved for new cheetah arrivals in India

You may have heard that the Indian authorities want to reintroduce the cheetah into India after they became extinct in that country in 1952 due to persecution by hunters, diminishing prey and a loss of habitat. It is a brave policy to reintroduce the cheetah into India perhaps primarily because there might not be enough space for them. They are fussy about where they live as they like open grasslands and scrub forests and there is not much of it in India.

The beautiful cheetah. Leopards have moved onto land reserved for new cheetah arrivals in India. It has caused some consternation among the rangers.

They've chosen the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary a.k.a. Kuno National Park. And sadly, their efforts to bring cheetahs back to India for the first time in 70 years have been undermined by native leopards as they have moved into the enclosure set aside for the new arrivals.

The plan was to bring eight cheetahs from Namibia in Africa which is the place where most of them currently exist on the planet. But park rangers at the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, have been forced to jump into action having discovered that six leopards invaded the 5 km² fenced area of the National Park allocated to the cheetahs.

The rangers have managed to trap and tranquilize three leopards and moved them to a different area of the park which is located 60 miles west of Shivpuri in central India. The three remaining leopards have yet to be trapped and the rangers are becoming nervous.

Amritanshu Singh, who is in charge of the enclosure, said: "The camera traps show us the path the leopards are taking and where they are. We have set up leghold traps, which do not hurt the animal but set off an alarm telling us they are inside the cage".

The last cheetahs in India were hunted down by a maharajah following decades of declining numbers. Narendra Modi's government was very proud in declaring the reintroduction of cheetahs into his country after a deal with the authorities in Namibia.

The plan is to import more from South Africa over the forthcoming five years to a maximum of 50. Wildlife campaigners have questioned the practicalities of this project and whether the conditions are right for cheetahs to return to India. They have described the project as a "vanity project".

The authorities have prepared for the reintroduction of the fastest land animal by moving about 100 deer into the area so that they have access to prey in what will be initially unfamiliar surroundings.

They fear that the cheetahs may struggle to acclimatise in part because they would have to compete against the big cats. They mean tigers and leopards. I don't know whether tigers are in this part of the park, probably not. I suspect that cheetahs will purposefully avoid leopards but it will curtail their movements.

Singh said: "African leopards do not typically like cheetahs so it may be the same with Indian leopards, who, moreover, have never seen a cheetah in their lives. It will be interesting to see their reaction."

Cheetahs to be reintroduced into India after being extinct there since 1952

This is a bold project but it is nice to read about it. India is going to reintroduce cheetahs into the country. The idea was first thought of in 2009. It is finally coming to fruition. The plan is to release 35-45 cheetahs into and around Kuno National Park over the next five years said the Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav. This park is in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The cheetahs will come from Namibia and South Africa. Namibia is the African country where there is the largest population of cheetah's in the world.

Cheetah. Image by Barry Reed from Pixabay.

The cheetah became extinct in India because of hunting under the British Raj together with loss of habitat. There were once large numbers of cheetahs in India. Emperor Akbar apparently had about a thousand of them. He used to go hunting with them because cheetahs are quite friendly and they can be semi-domesticated so you can hunt with them. You send the cheetah off to hunt some prey animal and enjoy the excitement of it. And they are very pretty wild cat. They look amazing when they run so that I guess is where the enjoyment comes from.

As mentioned in the title, they declared the cheetah extinct in India in 1952. India gained independence on 15 August 1947. The extinction in the wild of this wild cat occurred five years after independence was declared. Therefore the authorities in India must have contributed to this extinction by failing to recognise the precarious population numbers and the fact that they were at that stage near extinction. They could have taken steps to protect them but failed.

It's amazingly sad then to think that back in the day under the British Raj people took pleasure in killing them. 

The plan is to fit the animals with GPS collars and they are going to ask local residents to protect them against poachers.

It's a risky project but my research indicates that cheetahs relocate pretty well. They are one of the better wild cats in respect of relocation. They are tolerant of a wide range of environmental conditions. They don't pose a threat to humans. They just need to be protected from predation by other animals and from retaliatory killings by people.

In the past, a farmer in Namibia used donkeys to protect his calving herds. The more aggressive donkeys chased away jackals and drove away any cheetah that attempted to attack.

And the Cheetah Conservation Fund tried using guard dogs to protect livestock. They used four Anatolian Shephard guard dogs brought in from North America. It appears to been a successful because six more were later donated by a private breeder in North America and placed with collaborating farmers according to Mel and Fiona Sunquist (Wild Cats of the World).

Reintroductions of this nature can go badly wrong if the cheetah is too inexperienced to survive in the wild. They could end up being killed by predators or simply starving.

What does Acinonyx jubatus mean?

Cheetah running and turning using its claws for grip. Photo in the public domain.

Acinonyx Jubatus is the Latin, scientific name of the cheetah. Acinonyx is the generic name for the cheetah and jubatus describes the species. This is taxonomy, the classification of the species. The orgin of the word "Acinonyx" is probably a reference to the unsheathed claws of the cheetah to aid fast running and turning. A derivative of "akaina" meaning thorn and "onyx" meaning claw. Together they make: thorn-claw meaning visible claws as opposed to sheathed claws as in the domestic cat. Click for how to pronounce the Acinonyx jubatus.

UAE's destructive fascination with exotic animals

Rich arabs in the UAE tend to be fascinated with possessing exotic animals and a favourite is the cheetah. Why the cheetah? Because it is quite a shy, retiring large wild cat species which is fairly easy to handle and which has been employed for centuries to go hunting with their human 'master'.

The big problem is the rich arabs of the UAE circumvent regulations and treaties such as CITES to smuggle these animals into their country to populate their private zoos whereupon, through gross ignorance and a lack of sensitivity, they gradually starve the animal to death via neurological disorders. Some UAE residents haven't a clue how to care for a large cat. It will please and amuse them for a while and then it will die at which point, I suppose, they smuggle in another. They are disposable, you know, even if they are endangered.

Only this month a post-mortem on a cheetah revealed carpet in it stomach. It must have been so hungry it ate carpet.

These arrogant, exotic cat owners don't kill their 'pets' deliberately. God forbid. They kill through ignorance. The buyers of these animals act on a whim. It shows. No doubt they like the status of possessing an exotic wild cat. It is pathetic and sad.

And we have to criticise the people who are meant to enforce CITES. This treaty is meant to stop illegal trade in wild species but it has to be enforced if it is to be useful. Money circumvents enforcement.

Cheetahs and other large wild cat species are in the UAE for the sole purpose of entertaining the rich with connections.

There are no laws in UAE regulating private zoos. There should be. The rich arabs of UAE are contributing to the extinction of wild cat species in the wild. Something must be done. People in authority need to take steps. They need to take responsibility. They are not concerned. They are too involved with how to spend their petro-dollars.

Meet Gabriel the Cuddly Cheetah

You might love this but I am not sure about it.  I am not sure that I like this sort of thing.  Obviously Gabriel, the cheetah, has been raised by people all his life and you can tell he is still quite young because he has long hair from the nape of his neck to his shoulders.

The video was made at Volunteering at Cheetah Experience in South Africa where the man in the video, Gary Getz befriended this teenage cheetah Gabriel.  Gary says that Gabriel loves giving affection more than receiving it.

I think when Gary says that it hurts at the beginning of the video he is referring to Gabriel's tongue as he is being licked. As you know a cat's tongue is quite rough with hard keratin spikes on it.   Cheetah's seem to have many domestic cat traits and are quite friendly relative to some other wild cat species.

Difference Between Leopard and Cheetah

In order to fully compare the difference between the leopard and cheetah I think we need to look at the following: size and weight, appearance, prey, habitat, range and status in the wild. For the time being I have left out socialisation and reproduction and development.

Size and Weight

This part is easy. The leopard and the cheetah are the fifth and sixth largest wildcats on the planet respectively. The leopard is slightly heavier than the cheetah. The leopard weighs between 17 and 70 kgs while the cheetah weighs between 21 and 65 kgs. There is not much difference. They are similar is size. They are the "same general size". The major difference is that the cheetah is about 7.6 cms taller. The leopard has a greater weight and size difference across its range than the cheetah because the distribution of the leopard is so extensive.

Appearance

There is, however, a big difference between the leopard and cheetah in appearance. The cheetah does not have the heavy, stocky, muscular body and limbs of other large wildcats. It is a slim and slender wildcat with a very supple spine and a deep chest. The cheetah is a sprinter, a greyhound-like large wildcat. The leopard is more a decathlete, more an all rounder.

The whiskers of the cheetah are short and fine compared to the leopard's cheek whiskers. Whiskers play less of a role in catching prey for the cheetah.

The cheetah "has small canines because it runs so fast". It kills by strangulation and its bite force is less than that of the leopard. The neck bite that severs the spinal cord requires greater force. The leopard employs this method of killing smaller prey and the throat bite for larger prey. The cheetah's canines are smaller than those of the leopard.

The leopard has relatively short legs compared to the cheetah. This page shows the difference between the leopard and cheetah spots.

See cheetah description and leopard picture (appearance) and leopard description for more.

Prey

Leopard prey is extremely wide in its range. It will kill whatever it can catch. Its diet mainly consists of small to medium-sized animals (5-45 kgs). The cheetah mostly feeds on medium sized ungulates (hooved animals) in the 20-50 kg range but most are under 40 kgs.

The cheetah chases prey and runs it down through sheer speed. The leopard's final charge is short, in contrast stalking to within 4 meters in northeastern Namibia.We know that the cheetah can run at a maximum of about 65-70 mph for short bursts while the leopard probably has a top speed of about 45-50. See cheetah speed.

Distribution

The leopard has the widest distribution of all the wildcats from Africa through to eastern Asia while the cheetah is essentially found in Africa with a possible small population in Iran. See leopard habit/range and cheetah geographic range.

Habitat

Due to the very wide distribution of the leopard it is found in wide range of habitats. They can live in any type of habitat except true desert. The cheetah habitat is classically the flat grassy plains of Namibia. It likes arid semi-open grassland, savanna, semi-desert and even even mountain regions.

Status

The IUCN Red List classifies the leopard as Near Threatened while the cheetah is classified as Vulnerable. The range of classifications is as follows:

You can see that the cheetah is in a more precarious situation regarding its survival than the leopard. See a page on the IUCN Red for all wild cats.

Source: Wild Cats of the World ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77999-7 and myself.

Cheetah Sets Speed Record

Sarah at the finish - see video.

This is my comment on "cheetah sets speed record". If you Google this phrase, Google shows you a cheetah in a video running the 100 meters in 6.13 seconds.  The cheetah is a 9 year old female, Sarah, who sets off from the back of a vehicle and chases a fake prey item. The picture is a still from the video.

Is this a speed record? What was measured was acceleration and absolute speed. From a standing start over 100 meters you do not measure absolute top speed or average maximum speed. That is evident in the human world 100 and 200 meters world records. Usain Bolt has them both but the 200 meters record (19.19) is less than twice the 100 meters record (9.58), which means that he reached a higher terminal cruising speed in the longer race.

My guess is that the cheetah did not reach terminal velocity (maximum speed) in this video and so called world record. It is not therefore a good test of the speed of a cheetah. A speed test should discover the speed over a fixed distance as is the case for the human world land speed record (car) and it should be a flying start.

I have a page on cheetah speed which tells the story of a true speed test. The cheetah was assessed as running at 64 mph. This is a little less than much quoted 70 mph but people tend to exaggerate.

Sarah did the 100 meters in 6.13 seconds; an average speed, over the distance, of about 37 mph.

Conclusion: the wrong method was employed. The cheetah should have been timed over a 200 or 400 meter course with a flying start. Normally, the cheetah can only run at maximum speed over 400 meters. She is a sprinter. The cheetah gets too hot over longer distances.

Associated page: Usain Bolt versus Cheetah

How fast can a cheetah run?

Photo by Don Van Dyke

How fast can a cheetah run? The maximum recorded speed at which a cheetah has run is 64 mph (102.99 kmph) based on my research but most other websites quote about 71 miles per hour.

I think that it is fair to say that there is a degree of exaggeration on the internet as to the top speed of the cheetah. And sites copy each other.

I also think that there is little hard science on this subject. I feel that my page on cheetah speed addresses the question, "how fast does a cheetah run" with accuracy and some precision. I hope you agree.

What are cats' tails for?

What are cats' tails for? Two uses come to mind immediately.  Cats' tails are used for balance. In the domestic cat this use is somewhat redundant. For wildcats it is very much alive. Many wild cats are tree dwelling such as the margay and clouded leopard. These cats have long tails. Tails that are used for balance are also frequently very thick. I am thinking of the snow leopard that lives on 40 degree rocky inclines where excellent balance is paramount.

Although the domestic cat does not need the tail for balance as much it has developed another use of the tail, a form of visual communication through body language.

The wagging tail means that the cat is in mental conflict (out of balance mentally and not physically). This happens when he or she is uncertain about what to do.

The domestic and feral cat also uses the tail in the upright position to signal a friendly greeting. The tail position is used as a form of body language.

Cats that have bob tails or shortened tails are at a slight disadvantage. The bobcat comes to mind for the wild cats and the Japanese Bobtail is one example of a purebred cat without a normal length tail.

The bobcat is a ground hunter and probably does not need its tail for balance when chasing prey as much as the cheetah which is a much faster cat (max 64 mph compared to about 40+ at a guess for the bobcat).

Cat Inbreeding Means Poor Sperm

Cat Inbreeding Means Poor Sperm -- Yup, I am back to some semi-pornographic stuff with a serious, very serious undertone. If you want to see some more popular animal science/porn, you might like to read and see cats mating or lions mating. The sperm quality of endangered, and therefore low population species, is of reduced quality. This concerns, for example, the cheetah and many more wildcats in the wild, see below and please note I have selected wild cats and the domestic cat for discussion for convenience only, the thesis covers any animal. However the cheetah and domestic cat were involved in this research.


Endangered cheetah - photo © digitalART (artct45) modified slightly as allowed under the creative commons license

There are more abnormal sperm and less "motile" sperm in endangered species. This would also, it seems, apply to small populations in a fragmented habitat (e.g. Florida Cougar and Critically Endangered Iberian Lynx). The reduced sperm quality could explain "reductions in reproductive function in inbred populations" as the numbers of abnormal sperm and motile sperm are key factors in fertility.

In endangered species, with small populations inbreeding is obviously more likely. Also from a human perspective the scarcer and rarer a prized animal becomes (for its body parts) the more likely it is that it will be trapped, poisoned and skinned and butchered etc. This then is a "double whammy" on the chances of survival of already endangered species (of wildcat my area of interest). To the above we can add of course habitat loss and habitat fragmentation due to human activity (usually commercial) and it almost seems that the scarcer a wildcat becomes the faster the extinction process for than animal. It is a bit like global warming, it speeds up the nearer the "end game".

I guess this is not really news. We (people) do have rules on marriage after all that forbid inbreeding. In certain human cultures it is common to marry cousins. In these cultures there is a higher proportion of genetic illnesses. The same problem exists in domestic cat breeding. See Genetic Diseases in Purebred Cats, for example.

What happens in domestic cat breeding is that inbreeding depression results in defective and usually hidden recessive genes ("deleterious alleles" was the term used by the researchers) coming to the fore and causing illnesses. Also the immune system can be damaged. This is called "inbreeding depression", which can be defined as, "The loss of general health and 'vigor' that is sometimes a characteristic of animals that are inbred." The current research supports the fact that cat inbreeding means poor sperm.

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Cat Inbreeding Means Poor Sperm -- Here is some detail on this research. It indicates that Cat Inbreeding Means Poor Sperm:

The exact title of the research paper is "Reduced heterozygosity impairs sperm quality in endangered mammals" by John L Fitzpatrick* and Jonathan P Evans. Dr John Fitzpatrick is from the University of Western Australia's Center for Evolutionary Biology. The term heterozygosity means "Having different alleles at one or more corresponding chromosomal loci." (src: Free Dictionary). Reduced heterozygosity also means increases in homozygosity. See heterozygous and homozygous definitions.

The animals that were studied in this research project and their numbers:

• (1) Florida panther,
• (2) Indian lion,
• (3) cheetah,
• (4) black-footed ferret,
• (5) Ngorongoro Crater lion,
• (6) black bear,
• (7) South American panther,
• (8) margays,
• (9) tigrinas,
• (10) red wolf,
• (11) jaguar,
• (12) giant panda,
• (13) ocelot,
• (14) brown bear,
• (15) European rabbit,
• (16) Serengeti lions,
• (17) howler monkey,
• (18) bison,
• (19) domestic cat,
• (20) coyotes.

Chart showing the relationship between the proportion of (a) abnormal and (b) motile sperm in endangered (filed circles and solid line) and non-endangered (open circles and broken line) mammals. The chart is copyright The Royal Society and published on this page of Biology letters: Endangered animals and sperm quality (my words). The numbers on the chart relate to the numbers animals above the chart.

Cat Inbreeding Means Poor Sperm to Inbreeding is the Curse of Big Cats

Cat Inbreeding Means Poor Sperm - Photo published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License

Wild Cheetah Licks Photographer

A wild cheetah mother caring for her young licks the hand in affection for the photographer photographing her.

Here's a really nice video produced by National Photographic Wild Chronicles in which the mother cheetah who they filmed with her cubs, licks the hand of the photographer while he is photographing. Remind yourself of the plight of the cheetah: Jaguar Cheetah Animal Print Lunch Box Cooler Gifts & Gift Ideas



Wild cats in Africa are used to being tracked in vehicles and I suppose being photographed but it seems very charming to me that this happened. The photographer said that it was a great privilege to photograph the cheetah and felt a strong responsibility towards them. He reiterated what I have been hammering away at namely the loss of habitat in Africa and the world over that is driving the cheetah and the other wildcats to extinction in the wild. CITES and the IUCN red List really don't seem to be having much effect in preventing this gradual process of extinction.

See IUCN Red List for Cats and CITES in relation to Cats.

Wild Cheetah Licks photographer to Cheetah Habitat

Asian Cheetah

This is not an Asian cheetah as I couldn't find one on Flickr (not surprising since they are all but extinct in the world). This is a fine cheetah nonetheless - photograph copyright by World Resources Institute Staff - taken by Jonathan Talbot in South Africa.

The Asian cheetah is also called the Asiatic cheetah. Not that this will matter before long as this beautiful wild cat is almost extinct.

There are about 50-60 remaining in the wild in central Iran (I wonder if the war down there has had an effect?). Another survey indicates 70-100 survive. The cheetah already has a high level of inbreeding due to a drastic reduction in population about 10,000 years ago, during the ice age. Is such a small wild population viable? I can't find the answer quickly but I would have thought that 50 is a number at which population viability is at the limit. The species is critically endangered therefore.

The Asian cheetah is extinct in India. Like the cheetah found in Africa the Asiatic cheetah preys on antelope and other small/medium sized animals. Although I don't believe the antelope exists in Iran. In Iran a more readily available prey is the Jebeer gazelle and Goitered.

Since the Iranian revolution of 1979 when the Shah was overthrown and the Imams took control, the decline in the Asian cheetah has been accelerated. You would have thought the opposite would have been the case but sadly no. It looks like religion no only kills people.

This decline has been brought about by the destruction of (a) habitat (b) the prey the cheetah hunts and (c) the cheetah herself. Little or no consideration has been given to conservation efforts in Iran. It is a great shame that the cheetah finds herself in a country, Iran, and a continent, Africa that are to be truthful not that well suited to wildlife conservation as at 2009. That is particularly true now, in 2009, in Iran where there is political turmoil and a dictatorship. That said some (I think too little and certainly far too late) efforts are now being made.

"Degradation" of the habitat was accelerated during the period 1988-1991. The killing of wildlife that the Asian cheetah lives on also accelerated at this time, apparently. This is probably due to the difficulty in surviving for people in Iran. Or it is just plain hunting for pleasure. I've been to Iran during the time of the Shah (1971) and it seemed a reasonably prosperous country in those days. Quite westernized and cultured. It probably still is (cultured but no longer westernized). This would indicate hunting for pleasure is the problem.

Accessibility to the Asian cheetah habitat has been made easier because of road building for mining in the area of cheetah habitat. Also the cheetah habitat is in the region where smugglers pass from Afghanistan and Pakistan - more opportunity for hunting, which is uncontrolled.

Local herdsmen also kill the Asian cheetah because they think that the cheetah kills their livestock when in fact it is often other animals. Apparently some form of training is taking place to help herdsmen distinguish between the animals. I can't imagine how effective that is - probably extremely low grade and ineffective (wrong - please tell me).

India, having driven the Asian cheetah to extinction now want to clone the animal to reintroduce her. Same old story. Why do people do this? Everything is too late; the moment has passed. Why is it so reactionary and not proactive? Answer: people acting in short term self interest and a total lack of co-ordination.

Asian cheetah to cheetah facts

King Cheetah Pictures

Photo reproduced under creative commons license copyright moo sa - Female king cheetah at Tshukudu Game Lodge S. Africa.

King Cheetah Pictures are popular because this is a very rare wild cat. It was thought that the king cheetah was a different species of big wild cat (back in the 1920s when they were first noticed) but it is now know for sure that the distinctly different pattern (more marbled than the pure spotted pattern of the cheetah we are familiar with) is due a simple naturally occurring genetic mutation.

Genetic mutation are quite routine and have been seized upon by domestic cat breeders to create new cat breeds. Typical examples are the American Curl, the rex cats such as the LaPerm and the rarer dwarf cats; there are others. See them all on the main website Picture of Cats.



Photo copyright jurvetson - note: I am not sure that this Flickr photographer has the copyright to this photo - sorry but I think that I have seen it elsewhere. If I am wrong I apologize and please tell me.

There been few live sightings of the King Cheetah and most evidence of this cat's existence comes from skins and stuffed cats etc., pretty disgusting for me, a cat and wild life lover. As far as I remember there is evidence of about 38 king cheetahs since the 1930s or there abouts. Extremely low numbers but of course more could have existed but not seen. They seem, now, to be confined to game reserves and the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust breed this cat.

I prepared a page on this cat on the main website where there is more detail and a large format quality picture as well.


Photo copyright coschda

The pictures in this posting are from amateur Flickr photographers. Thanks for sharing them under the creative commons license that you grant.

King Cheetah Pictures to Cheetah habitat

Cheetah Food Chain

photo copyright World Resources Institute Staff and published under a creative commons license.

The Cheetah food chain is a short one, on the face of it. But before I mention it we must remind ourselves that the Cheetah is an endangered species. The Cheetah habitat has shrunk severely over many years and in the area where there are the most Cheetahs (Namibia) she is hunted and killed by farmers because she is forced to live on farmland. The situation is terribly dysfunctional.




Food Chains
The term "food chain" indicates a straight line transfer of fuel (biomass) from one animal to another in the form of a chain of events, usually the eating of one animal by another until the top predator is arrived at. Perhaps a more accurate depiction of the events is in the form of a network (food network) as there is in fact more going on that is at first apparent in part because consumers will consume from various sources forming an interconnected network of events.

A food chain starts with a primary producer and usually ends with the top carnivore.

Cheetah Food Chain
The Cheetah hunts and eats small to medium sized mammals such as gazelles, springbok and impala. The Cheetah will also catch and eat young zebra and wildebeest. See what cheetahs eat.

Although the Cheetah is "outranked" by all other large predators in his habitat, he has no predators (equal top of the chain) because of his speed. A Cheetah relies on speed to survive so will avoid injury. Injury in a fight wold result in the Cheetah losing the one advantage he has over all other large predators and so would make survival far more perilous. This is why the Cheetah gives up his kill to scavenging predators that he could possibly see off. It's risk/reward formula. It is more sensible in survival terms to give up the kill and kill again.

Gazelles eat coarse plants and leaves that are easy to digest. Plants and leaves are primary producers. They are able to make their own food from sunlight using the process of photosynthesis.

The Cheetah food chain starts with the primary energy source - sunlight. Here is a rather crude diagram depicting it (free to use):

Cheetah Food Chain to Cheetah habitat