While the lions and leopards hunt in the dark, the cheetah hunts frankly in the daylight. That attracts lots of tourists in safari vehicles.

The tourists want to see the cheetah close up, and the drivers get of the track and out on the savannah – even though this could mean fines and lock out from the park.

The cheetah starts running, not after the prey, but to get away from the crowd. He hasn’t fallen for temptation. The tourists and cheetahs are a paradox. It takes tourists to keep the park alive economically, but at the same time the tourists is a disturbance in the ecosystem world wide. There is nowhere else in the world that has more wild hoofed than Masai Mara in Kenya and Serengeti in Africa. There are approximately 1, 2 million Gnu’s, and hundreds of thousands zebras and antelopes of many species.

The world’s fastest

The cheetah is the worlds fastest cat animal, but research has shown that the cats generic material is so homogeneous that accidents, i.e. an epidemic decease could extinguish the whole specie. Every cheetah could be considered a clone of it self.

In some countries the cheetah is a menace, and many cattle owners would shoot the beautiful animal if they get the opportunity. Luckily there are many national parks where it is left alone, but here there is a different problem. In the national parks there are many other predators like lions and hyenas that steal the cheetah’s preys and kills their kids.

A research in Serengeti shows that 73 percent of the deaths of cheetah kids is caused by other predators, and that may be one of the reasons that the cheetah population seldom very solid.

The WWF has for many years monitored the cheetahs in Masai Mara. This is priceless in the understanding of the ecosystem and to be able to manage it in the best way possible.

Facts

The cheetah is the world’s fastest mammals with a top speed at 100km per hour. It lives of antelopes. It weighs about 45 – 60 kilos, it can purr, but not growl.

The name cheetah comes from the Hindu – Sanskrit “chitraka” witch means the one dressed in spots. The science name is Acinonyx jubatus.

There are less than 12 000 cheetahs left in Africa, and 100-200 animals in Iran. Nambia has the most with 2 500 cheetahs.