If you want to know where do cheetahs live in the world probably you should check out all these essential facts about the cheetahs habitat and distribution. The cheetah fancy living in open country including several parts of the geographic range. They build their habitats in semidesert, open grasslands, open woodlands, savanna mosaics and grassy plains. A few species will also survive on the rocky hills of Sahara and sandy plains where they move randomly and hide themselves under the rock or behind the bushes to avoid intense heat. The cheetah’s habitats are also found in the semiarid rangelands and savannas of Kenya.
Some species inhabit at a height of 1,500 meters in the mountains of Ethiopia including Kalahari and Namib. Cheetahs are absent from the equatorial forests of Central and West Africa. The primitive cheetahs were known to live in Asia and occupied all the major habitats of the world. According to the fossils some two to four hundred million years ago a giant cheetah named Acinonyx pardinensis lived all across Europe. The weight of the cat was measured at 200 pounds.
Where Do Cheetahs Live in the World
There was a time when cheetah roamed all across Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe. Besides, they were fairly common in western and central India of the Ganges predating four hundred years ago. In those times, it primarily preyed on blackbuck.
Cheetahs inhabiting Middle East are found in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Sind, Iraq and Palestine. They have also occupied all the suitable habitats across Africa except in tropical forests and deserts, ranging from Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope.
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Sadly speaking, cheetahs are disappearing rapidly from all the major habitats in Asia. These cats are already extinct in India and a handful number of them are found in the former Soviet Union. Besides, some species till exist in the international boundaries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Cheetahs were also sighted in the Khosh Yeilagh Wildlife Refuge across northeastern Iran.
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Where Do Cheetahs Live in Africa
The population of cheetahs faced a drastic decline in Africa and the major decline began since the year 1975. Although cheetahs are widely distributed throughout Africa, but the largest concentration occurs in the eastern and southern Africa specifically in Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and South West Africa. Around 300 to 500 cheetahs inhabit Sahara, principally in Niger, Chad, and Mali. The distribution of cheetahs overlaps with Thomson’s gazelles and Grant’s gazelles in southern Africa.
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Saving Cheetahs in the Wild | Where Do Cheetahs Live
Cheetahs are classified as endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to the study, the population of cheetahs had been declined by 6,782 (in Namibia) in the year ranging from 1980 – 1991; out of which 922 were exported and remaining 5,680 were killed. The latest study indicates that the mortality rate in young cheetahs is as high as 95%; these are often predated by lions and hyenas. Therefore, cheetahs prefer to live in places where lions and hyenas are present in low densities. On the worse side, cheetahs are not bred in captivity successfully.
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