WHERE DO CHEETAHS LIVE

Where do Cheetahs live?

Besides being arguably the most lithe and agile of all the big cat species, the cheetah also holds the record for being the worlds fastest land animal. While its phenomenal speed and acceleration has elevated the cheetah to a supercat within its genus, its incredible abilities are not down to a simple lucky accident but an evolutionary advantage resulting from the prey animals it choose to feed from and the environment within which it lives.

The cheetah

Before 1900 the Cheetahs ranged from Africa through the Middle East to southern Asia, and as far east as India with a global population of approximately 100,000 individuals. Today only between 9,000 and 12,000 cheetahs are believed to exist in the wild, mostly isolated in small pockets within the African continent and to a lesser extent southwestern Asia. A small population of around 50 are believed to still survive in the Khorasan Province of Iran and there have also been several unconfirmed reports of Asiatic Cheetahs in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.

As you would expect cheetahs prefer to inhabit areas with vast expanses of land where prey is abundant such as semidesert, prairie, and thick brush, The majority of cheetah populations are found in open and partially open savannah, where they rely on tall grasses for camouflage when hunting. Be that as it may, cheetahs can be found in a variety of habitats. In Namibia, for example, they can be found in grasslands, savannahs, areas of dense vegetation, and mountainous terrain.

Sadly, cheetah habitat is in decline and is becoming increasingly under pressure as the wide-open grasslands they favour are converted over to farmland and human settlements. Who knows what the future holds for wild cheetah populations, however without a concerted attempt to preserve their remaining habitat they are destined to become extinct!

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Where do cheetahs live?