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Conservationists urge giving cheetah "endangered" status, as its numbers crash

Xinhua, December 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), based in Namibia, has called for the upgrading of cheetahs' status from vulnerable to endangered, as the big cat's population shrinks dramatically.

Dr. Laurie Marker, CCF founder and executive director, said in a statement on Tuesday if nothing is done now to protect the cheetah the world may lose the iconic big cat.

"We are sounding a loud warning cry, otherwise we may lose the species during our lifetime," Dr. Marker said in the statement released after the publication of a report titled Disappearing Spots: The Global Decline of Cheetah and What It Means for Conservation, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Marker and Dr. Anne Schmidt-Kuentzel co-authored the paper that estimates the remaining population of cheetahs in Africa at 7,000 with a small number estimated to be less than 50 in Iran.

About a 100 years ago, the report said, the cheetah population was estimated to be 100,000.

According to the report, the main reason for the dramatic decline of the cheetah population is human encroachment, change in land tenure, large scale fencing, political instability and the insufficient protected area systems.

Dr. Marker also said in Zimbabwe, for example, cheetah population declined by 85 percent in 15 years because of land redistribution.

Dr. Schimdt-Kuentzel, CCF research geneticist and assistant director of animal health and research, said in the statement that cheetahs can reduce in numbers very drastically over a short period of time.

"This fact needs to be taken into consideration when assessing the cheetah's status," Dr. Schimdt-Kuentzel said. Endit