There Are Only 7,000 Cheetahs Left in the Wild – Here’s How You Can Protect Them

The biodiversity of our planet is suffering tremendously due to several factors caused by human population growth, including habitat loss from the expansion of roads, housing, and agriculture, which leads to human-wildlife conflict when displaced wildlife are forced to compete for land and resources with humans.

The glorious cheetah is dangerously near extinction, and according to The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), 89 percent of cheetahs’ natural habitat has been lost due to human population growth, and their wild populations have dropped by 30 percent in just the past eighteen years, leaving only 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild! AWF has been working with local farmers, educating them about wildlife and discouraging them from killing animals found foraging in farmland. If wildlife hunt livestock, AWF ensures that the livestock will be replaced if the farmers do not retaliate by targeting and killing wildlife.

There is one human practice that AWF needs your help with, however, and that is the international wildlife trade. According to a petition on Care2 written by AWF, the wild cheetah population is also at risk due to people illegally purchasing them as pets. AWF explains that cheetah cubs are often captured from the wild and placed in inhumane and dismal environments until they are purchased by a wealthy person who views a pet cheetah as a status symbol. From then, their life is typically doomed to a chain or cage, and they are discarded or killed if they prove to be too much of a “pet” for the owner to handle.

Thankfully, the United Arab Emirates, a major contributor to the illegal cheetah trade, has banned the purchase and ownership of big cats, but AWF wants your Support to make more countries do the same. As AWF explains, with wild cheetah populations so low, even selling a few wild cheetahs drastically affects the survival of the species.

Please take a moment to sign the petition demanding an end to the international wild cheetah trade.  And please share this with your network to gain more Support for our world’s cheetahs!

Image Source: Piet Bakker/pexels.com