The Star Early Edition

Saving the cheetah can create a symbol of harmony

Methods needed to help it survive extinction can work for the common good

- ILANIT CHERNICK

AN EXCITED yell of “there!” reaches your ears as you look through the blades of long grass, trying to spot a cheetah that has stopped the game drive in its tracks.

You encourage your family to look and remind them that this could be one of the last times they ever see this in the wild.

If we don’t start caring about our cheetah population, the only place our children and grandchild­ren may ever see one is on a visit to the zoo.

Like the giraffe population, the cheetah’s numbers are also dwindling across the world and it may not be long before there are hardly any left in the wild or they have become extinct.

There are just 7 100 left in the wild. According to co-ordinator of the Red List Project at the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) Matthew Child most of the cheetah’s range across Africa exists outside protected areas where there are more severe threats.

“They are declining in many African countries.

“For example, in Zimbabwe, they were estimated to have declined by 85% between 1999 and 2015 and have become extinct in many areas of West and Central Africa.”

Child said there was model-based data which suggested the cheetah population­s inside protected areas “supplement­ed” those outside.

“This is called ‘sink’ population­s and if growth rates of the protected population­s were to decline, the overall population would very rapidly move towards extinction.”

Worldwide, cheetahs are listed as vulnerable.

“The total population in South Africa is estimated to range between 1 166 and 1 742 animals.”

According to Child, cheetahs are very sensitive to habitat loss and fragmentat­ion because of their wide ranges and low densities and often come into conflict with livestock and game farmers.

“Such conflicts may be exacerbate­d in areas where the natural prey has been depleted due to bush meat hunting and agricultur­al or human settlement expansion.

“Cheetahs are also sometimes caught in snares intended for other species such as antelope,” he said.

The extensive illegal trade in cheetah cubs for the pet industry, especially to the Gulf states, was also adding to the crisis. “Illegal removal of wild animals for the captive-breeding industry is an emerging threat to the species locally and may be causing declines, among other threats, in the free-roaming population,” he warned.

He said cheetahs were also often killed on roads, particular­ly those that cross border protected areas.

However, South Africa was the only country in the world where the cheetah population was still growing, he said.

Vincent van der Merwe, a cheetah metapopula­tion co-ordinator at the Carnivore Conservati­on Programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, said in South Africa the cheetah population increased from about 500 animals in 1965 to 1 175 animals today.

“The growth is because we have reintroduc­ed cheetahs into 51 small fenced reserves across the country, making spaces for an additional 330 wild Cheetahs that are now managed as a metapopula­tion.

“There have also been major changes in land use in South Africa,” he said.

Van der Merwe also explained that with the switch from livestock farming to game ranching during the 1990s and 2000s, a large free-roaming cheetah population establishe­d itself on South Africa’s northern border with Botswana, and to a lesser extent on the western boundary of the Kruger National Park.

“Southern Africa is the conservati­on stronghold for cheetah, with an estimated 4 520 adult and independen­t adolescent wild cheetahs.

“Seventy-five percent of the wild cheetahs in Southern Africa occur outside of protected areas.

“East Africa supports an estimated 2 570 independen­t and independen­t adolescent cheetahs.

“According to the population in west, central and northern Africa is estimated at 450 individual­s.

“In Asia there are only about 80 cheetahs left.”

According to the numbers supplied by the EWT the cheetah population is now extinct in countries that once had several hundred cheetahs like Mauritania, Chad, Mali and Cameroon.

In Ethiopia the population has more than halved while in Kenya the population has declined from 2 000 to 650 since 1975.

To combat the decline and to conserve the population that is left Child said cheetah conservati­on could rely on protected areas alone as they were wide-ranging species, with home ranges sometimes in excess of 3 000km2.

“Incentives will need to be put in place to reduce human-wildlife conflict outside of protected areas and allow coexistenc­e of cheetahs with agricultur­al communitie­s.

“For example, the use of livestock-guarding dogs to protect livestock and game and reduce cheetah persecutio­n,” he said.

Other ways he suggested include furthering developmen­t of trans-boundary or trans-frontier conservati­on areas, enhanced regional co-operation between conservati­on agencies and land use planning across large landscapes with multiple land-uses (agricultur­e, industry and settlement­s) to create habitat corridors between protected areas.

Child said in South Africa especially, legislatio­n was needed to completely ban the movement of wild cheetah into captivity.

“This includes legal requiremen­ts to mark, trace and monitor captive-bred animals,” he emphasised.

Child added that if the cheetah was to persist in Africa, innovative solutions involving conservati­onists, local communitie­s, government­al agencies and the private sector were required.

“The cheetah can become a symbol of harmonious, multifunct­ional and integrated landscapes if we get this right,” he concluded.

Southern Africa is the stronghold for cheetah, with about 4 520

 ?? PICTURE: IAN LANDSBERG ?? THREATENED: A young cheetah feeds on a fresh kill in Kgalagadi Transfront­ier Park. Because of the cheetah’s sensitivit­y to habitat change and other foes, they are under severe threat of extinction.
PICTURE: IAN LANDSBERG THREATENED: A young cheetah feeds on a fresh kill in Kgalagadi Transfront­ier Park. Because of the cheetah’s sensitivit­y to habitat change and other foes, they are under severe threat of extinction.

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