Human Interference To Blame For Plunging Cheetah Numbers
The cheetah is a beautiful and elegant animal that is known the world over for its speed, which gives it the the ability to hunt extremely fast prey ranging from rabbits to antelopes. Despite its fame, there is bad news; cheetah numbers have plunged from roughly 100,000 in 1900 to less than 10,000 today. Some researchers have long believed that the cheetah loses so much energy when it sprints that it ends up suffering harm as a result. Other scientists think that lions and hyenas are to blame because they argue the cheetah often loses its hard won food to theft by opportunistic hunters. A new study suggests that neither of those theories are very accurate.
The cheetah simply can’t find food
The latest research suggests the main reason behind the decline is that human interference in areas where cheetahs live is adversely affecting the ability of the big cat to find food. The researchers took a close look at 19 cheetahs living in two wild reserves of South Africa. One in the wet Karongwe Private Game Reserve and the other in the Kalahari Desert said Michael Scantlebury the lead researcher who lectures at Belfast’s Queen’s University.
Injecting big cats with isotopes
The researchers first captured the cheetahs and injected them with water laced with an isotope whilst also attaching radio collars to the big cats. The researchers then kept track of the cheetahs for a couple of weeks and recorded their behaviour including when they were chasing prey, walking, sitting and lying down. The researchers also looked at the rate at which the cheetahs excreted the isotopes through their poo which enabled them to work out just how much energy the cheetahs expended during their daily activities such as hunting.
Cheetah’s expend most of their energy walking
The result that was most surprising was the fact that most of the energy the big cats expended was on walking long distances in order to find prey. The extended walking was caused by habitat loss and human involvement such as erecting barriers or fences. Dr. Scantlebury said that whilst the cheetah was resilient and well adapted, it still needs to walk across sand dunes during high temperatures every day with no water to drink and this was the main reason for the energy expenditure.
Lions and hyenas not to blame either
The study also rejected the claim that hyenas and lions were the cause behind declining cheetah numbers because they were stealing cheetah prey. Dr. Scantlebury adds that cheetahs have no problem dealing with larger predators who occasionally steal their food. For this to have a marked impact on numbers, their food would need to be stolen more than fifty per cent of the time which was not the case with the animals that were part of the study.
Humans are the main problem
Instead of blaming larger predators, human beings should understand the impact of their actions and how they affect endangered animals like the cheetah. One researcher said we should imagine how difficult it is for a tiny cub to follow its mother through the desert as she hunted for food and whilst she herself is fighting for survival. Humans are increasingly coming into conflict with animals as we encroach on their habitat and this is the primary reason for the decline in the numbers of so many species.