Cheetahs

 

Most people know that Cheetahs are the fastest land animal in the world. They steer with their tail at speeds up to 70 mph; that is faster than the speed limit on most state highways! What people normally do not know about cheetahs though is that the size of their population is slowly dwindling.
Now, Cheetah print may be in high fashion right now, but cheetah fur is not the cause of this. It is mainly due to habitat loss caused from humans intruding on their territory and taking it over. Because of this human impact, many other creatures are suffering from it all well. They suffer from a general decline in the prey that they hunt because humans are taking over their residential areas. There has been a significant drop in the population of cheetahs over the past 100 years going from over 100,000 cheetah’s world wild to an extremely low number of 12,000 within their population.

This proves that the human impact is indeed significant! Cheetahs, along with every other animal, are an extreme factor in the food chain. It cannot be stressed enough that humans need to be more aware of their surroundings and not casually take over a cheetah’s territory. It has many extreme effects that most people would not even care to think twice about.

 

To learn about how cheetah populations can be helped and conservation efforts, visit the links below.

 

Sources:
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/photography/photos/animal-mothers-babies/cheetah-mother-cub/ 

http://urbanartwallpaper.blogspot.com/2010/12/running-cheetah-animal-wallpaper.html

http://www.defenders.org/cheetah/basic-facts

http://www.cheetah.org/