The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is the fastest land animal — capable of 100 km/h sprints over short distances — and one of the most ecologically specialised big cats. It needs large open landscapes, low competition from larger predators, and an abundance of small-to-medium antelope. All three are in decline.
WARN is preparing to operate in Kenya and Tanzania, two countries that between them hold an important share of the East African cheetah population.
How many cheetahs are left?
Reliable continental estimates place the wild cheetah population at 6,500-7,100 individuals, mostly across southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe) and East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania), with smaller fragmented populations elsewhere. The Asiatic cheetah — once found from the Middle East to India — is now reduced to a tiny relict population in Iran of fewer than 50 individuals, Critically Endangered.
The threats
- Habitat loss and prey depletion. Cheetahs need wide-ranging open habitat. Fencing, farming and livestock grazing fragment the landscape and replace wild prey with cattle.
- Retaliatory killing. Cheetahs that take goats or calves are shot or poisoned. Cheetahs do far less livestock damage than larger predators per kilo of meat taken, but they are easier to kill.
- Illegal pet trade. Cheetah cubs are trafficked out of the Horn of Africa to Gulf-state buyers. The mortality rate among smuggled cubs is high; CITES and UNODC have repeatedly flagged this supply chain.
- Competition with larger predators. Cheetahs lose roughly half of their kills to lions and hyenas, and lion populations in protected areas can suppress cheetah numbers.
What is working
Livestock-guarding-dog programmes in Namibia and Botswana have produced measurable reductions in retaliatory killing. Conservancy models that share tourism revenue with pastoralist communities are reducing conflict in northern Kenya. The cub-trafficking supply chain remains under-enforced.
How WARN fits in
Cheetahs are not yet a WARN appeal. Our Elephant Appeal addresses one of the meaningful indirect threats to cheetahs — wire snares set for bushmeat — and our long-term Kenya and Tanzania work will operate in the same landscapes as cheetah conservation. We will not claim direct cheetah impact.
Sources: IUCN Red List, CITES Appendix I, UNEP-WCMC, UNODC World Wildlife Crime Report.
We need your support to make this happen
World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.
Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.
