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| Raised by humans: Brian Jones of Cheetah Conservation Botswana pets Duma, one of two cats that the group uses to teach people
there about the animal. Stephanie Hanes |
Speed alone can't save the cheetah
About 10,000 roam the wilds of Africa. Conservation programs are coordinating efforts to boost that number.
from the January 16, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
Relief for the cheetah would send hopeful signs about the state of some of the world's last true wildernesses, conservationists say. But the cat is by no means out of harm's way, they say.
"If there's pressure on an ecosystem, they're the first you're going to see it with," says Charles Knowles, the executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Network, which funds conservation entrepreneurs and groups. "Cheetahs serve as a good indicator species for predators in an ecosystem. If you can make it healthy for a cheetah, you're going to make it healthy for everyone."
Fast hunters lack versatility
A close look at Duma shows what makes the cheetah so unusual for the cat world.
On the one hand, he's unmistakably feline, with the purring, the big eyes, the twitching tail. But then, he's not exactly regal. He's got long, skinny legs; a lanky, spotted body; and a head that is rather flat and small. A little awkward, if you want to be honest about it. And if you get close enough to his paws, you see that he doesn't have the retractable claws of other cats.
All of those physical characteristics have one purpose: speed. The cheetah's one and only hunting trick is that it's faster than anything it might want to eat, running up to 70 miles per hour. This means an antelope doesn't stand a chance in a race – but it also means that the cheetah is particularly vulnerable to injury.
"It could literally sprain an ankle and it would die," says Mr. Knowles. That's opposed to, say, a leopard, which will just adjust its hunting style to compensate for even a missing limb. (It will drop out of a tree on unsuspecting prey.)
This reliance on speed and not much else means that cheetahs don't have the tools to fight off other predators who want to steal their dinner. Even an unarmed human can walk up to a cheetah and take away its catch. The cats also have trouble protecting their babies – lions in particular are known to kill cheetah cubs as a way of eliminating bush rivalry. This is one of the reasons why cheetahs don't do well in wildlife reserves, where limited space increases competition among predators.
To avoid these run-ins, the cheetah hunts during the day – the only cat to do so. But daytime hunting has its own perils: humans. When livestock goes missing, farmers are more likely to see a cheetah on the prowl than any other cat. So while cheetahs are certainly responsible for taking their share of unattended goats, they also often get blamed – and killed – for other cats' hunting.
"When there is a dead whatever, the first reaction is to say 'A cheetah got it,' " Jones says. "Then retaliatory killings take place."
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