The distribution and numbers of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in southern Africa.
Abstract
Assessing the numbers and distribution of threatened species is a central challenge
in conservation, often made difficult because the species of concern are rare and
elusive. For some predators, this may be compounded by their being sparsely distributed
over large areas. Such is the case with the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus. The IUCN Red
List process solicits comments, is democratic, transparent, widely-used, and has recently
assessed the species. Here, we present additional methods to that process and provide
quantitative approaches that may afford greater detail and a benchmark against which
to compare future assessments. The cheetah poses challenges, but also affords unique
opportunities. It is photogenic, allowing the compilation of thousands of crowd-sourced
data. It is also persecuted for killing livestock, enabling estimation of local population
densities from the numbers persecuted. Documented instances of persecution in areas
with known human and livestock density mean that these data can provide an estimate
of where the species may or may not occur in areas without observational data. Compilations
of extensive telemetry data coupled with nearly 20,000 additional observations from
39 sources show that free-ranging cheetahs were present across approximately 789,700
km2 of Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (56%, 22%, 12% and 10% respectively)
from 2010 to 2016, with an estimated adult population of 3,577 animals. We identified
a further 742,800 km2 of potential cheetah habitat within the study region with low
human and livestock densities, where another ∼3,250 cheetahs may occur. Unlike many
previous estimates, we make the data available and provide explicit information on
exactly where cheetahs occur, or are unlikely to occur. We stress the value of gathering
data from public sources though these data were mostly from well-visited protected
areas. There is a contiguous, transboundary population of cheetah in southern Africa,
known to be the largest in the world. We suggest that this population is more threatened
than believed due to the concentration of about 55% of free-ranging individuals in
two ecoregions. This area overlaps with commercial farmland with high persecution
risk; adult cheetahs were removed at the rate of 0.3 individuals per 100 km2 per year.
Our population estimate for confirmed cheetah presence areas is 11% lower than the
IUCN's current assessment for the same region, lending additional support to the recent
call for the up-listing of this species from vulnerable to endangered status.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23528Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.7717/peerj.4096Publication Info
Weise, Florian J; Vijay, Varsha; Jacobson, Andrew P; Schoonover, Rebecca F; Groom,
Rosemary J; Horgan, Jane; ... Pimm, Stuart L (2017). The distribution and numbers of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in southern Africa. PeerJ, 5(12). pp. e4096. 10.7717/peerj.4096. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23528.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Stuart L. Pimm
Doris Duke Distinguished Professor of Conservation Ecology in the Nicholas School
of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Stuart Pimm is a world leader in the study of present-day extinctions and what can
be done to prevent them. His research covers the reasons why species become extinct,
how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction and,
importantly, the management consequences of this research. Pimm received his BSc degree
from Oxford University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from New Mexico State University in 1974.
Pimm is the author of over 350 scientific papers and five books. He i

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