cannot support such high numbers It is the larger species that have suffered most simply because they need large amounts of space just as we do Get rid of an elephant herd and it creates room for 100 people and their crops As numbers of humans have increased wild mammals have been pushed aside For example during a 30 year period when elephants declined drastically in Kenya the high human birthrate there meant that the lost elephants were replaced by almost exactly the same total tonnage of people Domestic mammals such as cattle sheep and goats have everywhere increased in numbers replacing their wild relatives and competing for the limited amounts of available food Exploitation Some wild mammals have been specially hunted for their skins ocelot for example meat banteng or other products such as wool from vicuñas ivory from African elephants pp 36 37 or blubber from whales pp 20 25 Overexploitation has led to catastrophic population declines This particularly affects the larger species because they do not breed rapidly having few young and taking a long time to The lifeless body of a gray whale washed up on a beach after it was ensnared in a discarded fishing net Accidental deaths ranging from roadkills to incidents such as this claim the lives of mammals the world over reach breeding age Populations cannot cope with large numbers being killed and they collapse Larger mammals also tend to live longer often more than 20 years That allows time for poisons and other pollutants such as heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls known as PCBs to accumulate and take effect preventing breeding and causing sickness and sometimes even death The accumulation of poisons is less of a problem for animals that naturally live for only a short time Some mammals such as whales and many large land species are thinly spread over a wide area Their distribution therefore suggests a level of abundance that is misleading They seem to be common but widespread populations that are thin on the ground are vulnerable to fragmentation Once the population is broken into small groups they often include too few to be viable and they die out one after another Some The lack of natural food sources as a result of habitat disturbance can result in young being abandoned and conservationists intervening Here bats are fed from a syringe on goats milk
WHAT IS A MAMMAL Percentage of mammals threatened 0 7 7 12 12 17 17 100 Southern hemisphere countries that have the highest percentage of threatened mammals above include Australia Madagascar and Indonesia species are at risk from interbreeding with their domesticated relatives creating hybrids Smaller Species Small mammals have problems too Their size makes them vulnerable to predators and to cold weather At least half of all known mammal species are rat sized or smaller One third of all mammals are rodents rats mice squirrels and so on and one in five is a bat These animals are often difficult to study and are normally largely ignored This means that we simply do not know what their real status is Their numbers are unknown and not monitored Many may go extinct without ever being officially recorded as being present These are special problems for mammals but like other animals the mammals also suffer from habitat destruction Those that are adapted to a particular way of life suffer heavily from the cutting down of trees or the mass removal of their food such as fish to feed humans This is a particular problem where populations are small to start with Numbers of Threatened Species in Each of the Major Mammalian Groups Rodents mice squirrels and beavers Bats Carnivores dogs cats bears and otters Primates monkeys apes and lemurs Ungulates horses rhinos hippos deer and antelope Marsupials 461 253 98 224 149 61 Rodents which constitute 30 percent of all mammals represent the highest number of threatened species above The Situation Today There are about 5,500 species of mammal but more than 10,000 species of birds and almost 40,000 fish About 80 to 90 mammal species have become extinct in the last 300 years and many subspecies and local varieties are also extinct or nearly so Of the living species about 3 4 percent are now Critically Endangered 8 2 percent Endangered and 9 0 percent Vulnerable More than one quarter of all known mammals are threatened in some way That is about twice the proportion of threatened birds The highest proportion of endangerment is among the primates 49 percent of primate species are threatened 7
Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus EX EW CR EN VU NT LC The cheetah is well known for its lean body great speed and spotted coat Years of persecution have made it one of the world’s most vulnerable big cats O the the world’s fastest land animal over short distances the cheetah is also the most ancient of all the big cats Cheetahs probably evolved on the plains of the Middle East four million years ago Fossil evidence shows that 10,000 years ago cheetahs roamed in places as far apart as North America Europe Asia and Africa The cheetah’s heyday lasted until the last ice age since then human populations have exploded and the cheetah’s range and numbers have shrunk In their ancestral homeland of the Middle East the Asian subspecies of cheetah is Critically Endangered with very few if any animals left in remote parts of Iran and Afghanistan The situation is only slightly better in Africa Cheetahs differ from other big cats in their adaptations for hunting The shape of a cheetah a narrow elongated body and long muscular legs is ideal for sprinting Unlike its cousins the cheetah cannot completely retract its claws it needs them to provide extra grip when running at high speeds Cheetahs take advantage of the fact that other large predators rest during the hottest part of the day and do their hunting in the late morning and early afternoon A cheetah first stalks its prey then runs it down at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour 95 km h The flexibility of the cat’s long spine allows it to take huge strides Most chases are over in about 20 seconds any prey that can evade capture for more than a minute will probably escape since the cheetah cannot maintain its speed for long Cheetahs kill by clamping their jaws around the victim’s throat This has the effect of closing off the windpipe so the prey stops breathing The cheetah does not have particularly big teeth but exceptionally large nostrils ensure that even when out of breath from the chase it can inhale deeply through its nose while maintaining a suffocating grip with its jaws Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus Family Felidae World population 7,000 10,000 Distribution Sub-Saharan Africa excluding Congo Basin most of South Africa Iran Habitat Grasslands DATA PANEL Size Length head body 44 60 in 112 152 cm tail 20 33 in 51 84 cm height at shoulder 25 37 in 64 94 cm males slightly larger than females Weight 86 143 lb 39 65 kg Form Slender big cat with long muscular legs small head and long curved tail Coat golden yellow with black spots small rounded ears black stripes either side of nose Diet Mainly gazelles also impala warthogs small antelopes gamebirds and hares Breeding Between 1 and 8 young average 3 5 born at any time of year peak births March June Life span 12 14 years in the wild up to 17 years in captivity Related endangered species No close relatives Status IUCN VU Asian subspecies A jubatus venaticus CR 8
Cheetah means spotted one in Hindi and every cheetah has markings as unique as a fingerprint In some Zimbabwean cheetahs the spots along the back and tail join up to form a blotchy pattern Animals with this distinctive pattern are called king cheetahs and they were once thought to be a separate subspecies However it has been shown that they are simply part of the natural variation within the local population The black tear stripes on the cheetah’s face are thought to help protect their eyes from sunlight reflecting off their cheeks Human athletes imitate this idea when they daub paint across their cheeks and noses Cheetahs breed at any time of year A female is in heat and ready to mate every 12 days unless she already has cubs She will give birth to three to five cubs per litter but infant mortality is high and fewer A cheetah can achieve speeds of 0 to 45 miles per hour 0 to 72 km h in 2 5 seconds acceleration to rival some sports cars than one-third of all cubs survive to adulthood Small widely scattered cheetah populations mean that much inbreeding occurs and many cubs are born with genetic defects A solution might be to release some animals from captivity bringing in fresh genetic stock Tourist Attraction Cheetahs face problems even in protected national parks Tourists want to see the cheetahs wherever possible and this tends to scare off prey and distracts the animals from hunting Disturbance of cheetah kills also allows scavengers such as jackals to nip in and steal the food Cheetahs are not good at defending themselves from this sort of interference 9
