Save The Cheetahs

When someone says big cats and endangered in the same line most people think, tigers or leopards hardly anyone ever thinks cheetahs. But they are big cats and they are endangered, and close to extinction unless people start to act now. As the cheetahs are so endangered and so ignored their current status is only likely to get worse and since they have been on the list since the 1960's this just adds to the idea things arent going to get better. Which is why not only do people need to act, but act now. There are two main reasons to explain these stunning animals going extinct is loss of habitat. The cheetahs need open plains to hunt on and they are disappearing now due to humans building or ruining the land. Also farmers or hunters cause a lot of their bad status right now. The cheetahs are not picky about what animals they eat, as long as they can fill their stomachs. Which means that every now and then they will take some livestock from farmers. And most farmers do not see them as hungry animals with nothing else to eat easily but as guilty, theives and they shoot them to protect their animals. There are also places in Africa where people can go on holiday hunting trips for cheetahs for fun as well as these there are the hunters themselves who shoot them for their beautiful skin or again simply for fun.

Fortunately there are people out there who are actually trying to help these animals, but as with all endangered animals not enough. There are projects and centres that have been started up to protect as well as breed the fastest land animal. As well as breeding and protecting the cheetahs the centres can provide education for people about the endangered animal. They have to be careful that during their work interbreeding does not occur as this could cause even more problems for the cheetahs.

With more and more projects of awareness and saving the cheetah, as well centres being set up then the cheetah could go from its status as "Vulnerable" to not on the endangered list at all. If series conservation and help efforts then the chances of the cheetah becoming extinct at all will become smaller and smaller and hopefully one day it wont even be there any more.

Not only is it just important to stop the cheetah going extinct but it is also important as if the cheetahs disappear then an imbalance in nature will occur as too many antelope will appear and it could easily lead to overgrazing.

As I said earlier on there are actually places where you can go and hunt the cheetahs for a holiday. This is disgusting and is endangering them. The Hunting Safari is located in a high cheetah population area, meaning that their chances of catching a cheetah and killing it is slightly higher than other places. There are images on their site where you can view "Cheetah Hunting Trophy Pictures" which are basically images of people who have just killed an innocent animal and are sat with it infront of them. Yet that is not the worse part, the worse part is that they all have smiles on their faces. The question I want to ask is how how can someone smile when they have such an innocent, stunning animal infront of them that they have just taken the life from?

On the site of a Hunting Safari they talk of the cheetah hunt as challenging because the cheetah territory is so vast they are constantly on the move and that they only eat fresh meat, meaning they dont respond to the baiting like what is commonly done for leopard or lion hunting. They also boast about the excellent native tracker they have on their team who has been with them for 20 years and featured on the discovery channel. "needless to say, with the exceptional abilities of our trackers, we have an excellent cheetah hunting success rate." is a quote from their website.

They also state that the USA and some other countries do not permit the importation of a cheetah trophy, in other words they do not allow the cheetah body to travel through to the country. Which I think is good in some ways. Countries should not allow people to bring in their "trophy" to proove that they killed an innocent animal that does not even attack humans unless extremly forced to.

So please help the cheetahs by signing this petition to try and stop the hunting of cheetahs happening.