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Cheetahs heading towards extinction


Still Waters

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The sleek, speedy cheetah is rapidly heading towards extinction according to a new study into declining numbers.

The report estimates that there are just 7,100 of the world's fastest mammals now left in the wild.

Cheetahs are in trouble because they range far beyond protected areas and are coming increasingly into conflict with humans.

The authors are calling for an urgent re-categorisation of the species from vulnerable to endangered.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38415906

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Have you ever noticed how people eager to have rural Africans share rural Africa with dangerous or destructive animals don't live in rural Africa?

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3 minutes ago, PersonFromPorlock said:

Have you ever noticed how people eager to have rural Africans share rural Africa with dangerous or destructive animals don't live in rural Africa?

Same can kind of be said for anyone anywhere where rural human and animal interaction happens. But there are usually people that do live in those areas that are ok with sharing too. And some folks that just don't care either way.

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Let these large cats and other large endangered animals disappear and rural Africans will have lost a source of income, tourists, not to mention part of their heritage. 

I live in a very rural area and my yard gets all kinds of visitors, some are dangerous but hey that is life in the country.  Although I have to admit I don't have African sized animals to deal with, just coyotes, black bears, bobcats and mountain lions/panthers.  Someday we may add wolves to that if they aren't here already.  Some people swear they have seen them but some people here swear they have seen Bigfoot too.lol

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Sadly there is just too much apathy in this world. This issue is obviously caused by a combination of climate change and a societal instability that forces people to care about nothing but simply surviving. I am reminded of the topic a month or so ago about the giraffes going extinct. I was attacked endlessly by one person on this forum because I dared to mention the word "politics".

With so much ignorance, nothing is going to change. The people who have lost all sense of empathy in an effort to prove to the other side is wrong (just because) are the ones solely responsible for the downfall of normality as we know it.

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Cheetahs needs the right kind of terrain and environment coveted by those Big Building Development Corporations ... flat and easy to build on for greater slices of profits ~

 

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2 hours ago, Ashotep said:

Let these large cats and other large endangered animals disappear and rural Africans will have lost a source of income, tourists, not to mention part of their heritage. 

I live in a very rural area and my yard gets all kinds of visitors, some are dangerous but hey that is life in the country.  Although I have to admit I don't have African sized animals to deal with, just coyotes, black bears, bobcats and mountain lions/panthers.  Someday we may add wolves to that if they aren't here already.  Some people swear they have seen them but some people here swear they have seen Bigfoot too.lol

I don't understand why these animals should even be endangered when scarcely populated places like Australia, Canada and Russia would make an excellent habitat for all these endangered animals and Im not just talking about those that live in Africa either. Fence off an area the size of Western Europe and let them be. 

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9 hours ago, Captain Risky said:

I don't understand why these animals should even be endangered when scarcely populated places like Australia, Canada and Russia would make an excellent habitat for all these endangered animals and Im not just talking about those that live in Africa either. Fence off an area the size of Western Europe and let them be. 

The only problem with this is what would it do to local animals. 

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16 hours ago, Still Waters said:

The sleek, speedy cheetah is rapidly heading towards extinction according to a new study into declining numbers.

The report estimates that there are just 7,100 of the world's fastest mammals now left in the wild.

Cheetahs are in trouble because they range far beyond protected areas and are coming increasingly into conflict with humans.

The authors are calling for an urgent re-categorisation of the species from vulnerable to endangered.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38415906

Being the fastest land animals (still) alive, what did you expect? 

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19 minutes ago, Ashotep said:

The only problem with this is what would it do to local animals. 

Nothing, you just need to relocate them as well. 

We'll just have to rename them, so to not create confusion. 

For instance, when relocating the Sarcophilus harrisii to US, change the name from Tasmanian devil to Jersey devil, and we'll kill two birds with a stone (maybe not the best metaphor in this context?). 

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From what I understand the Cheetah going extinct was an inevitablility no matter what course of action was taken.  From a more paleontological look the Cheetah has had its population drop to near extinction levels multiple times over the past few tens of thousands of years, might be wrong on the timespan but I'm too lazy to check it on my phone, and that all of these genetic bottlenecks have basically wrecked the Cheetah's genome.  

I am not sure if this is true or not but I heard that now basically all Cheetahs are cousins of each other and it's basically if not outright impossible to avoid some level of inbreeding in the wild and zoos.  Also from what I understand of Cheetahs social behavior that inbreeding among siblings is extremely hard to prevent cause cheetah cubs from the same litter largely stay together and that the parent cheetahs rarely if ever chase off their young once they reach breeding age causing all of these smaller pockets of intense inbreeding in a species that is already lacking genetic diversity.

Of course humans have played a role in taking land away from cheetahs and some level of poaching but from what I understand of genetics and zoology the cheetahs have been a doomed species anyway.

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THe Cheetah got too specialized in the evolutionary sense for its own good ...

~

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16 hours ago, Ashotep said:

The only problem with this is what would it do to local animals. 

I don't know what its like in your neck of the woods, Ashotep... but here in Australia, we have massive feral problems like wild pig, rabbit, goat and kangaroo, maybe in Russia they have deer and wild animals that could exist with new introduced species... plenty to munch on for our new friends. But alot of these animals will also be vego's like elephants and giraffe's etc, so it should be okay. 

Edited by Captain Risky
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12 hours ago, third_eye said:

THe Cheetah got too specialized in the evolutionary sense for its own good ...

~

I thought they were inbred. 

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4 hours ago, Captain Risky said:

I thought they were inbred. 

Well that's the first time I've heard it like that ...

~

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8 hours ago, Captain Risky said:

I don't know what its like in your neck of the woods, Ashotep... but here in Australia, we have massive feral problems like wild pig, rabbit, goat and kangaroo, maybe in Russia they have deer and wild animals that could exist with new introduced species... plenty to munch on for our new friends. But alot of these animals will also be vego's like elephants and giraffe's etc, so it should be okay. 

I get what you are saying but because of past introduction of non-indigenous animals to areas not turning out so well I would approach an ideal like that with caution.  Local predators will have to compete with any new predators introduced and may not win the battle.  Also even vegetarian animals can also make it harder for local grazers to find food.

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3 hours ago, Captain Risky said:

Thanks for the link, been a long time since I last read up about the cat and what I remembered was the cheetah got to be specialised that way to compete because of the pressure from the two apex predator and scavenger in its environment, the lion and the hyena ~ I guess bottleneck inbreeding resulted from that pressure too ...

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Does it really matter if cheetahs become extinct?

The answer to that is a resounding no.

Let them become extinct. Extinction is perfectly normal and natural. Most species that have ever lived went extinct long before humans came along.

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On ‎12‎/‎26‎/‎2016 at 9:01 PM, Xomon said:

Sadly there is just too much apathy in this world. This issue is obviously caused by a combination of climate change and a societal instability that forces people to care about nothing but simply surviving. I am reminded of the topic a month or so ago about the giraffes going extinct. I was attacked endlessly by one person on this forum because I dared to mention the word "politics".

With so much ignorance, nothing is going to change. The people who have lost all sense of empathy in an effort to prove to the other side is wrong (just because) are the ones solely responsible for the downfall of normality as we know it.

Such a knee jerk, ignorant answer based purely on your political views with little or no knowledge of what the actual situation is.   :rolleyes:

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4 hours ago, Black Monk said:

Does it really matter if cheetahs become extinct?

The answer to that is a resounding no.

Let them become extinct. Extinction is perfectly normal and natural. Most species that have ever lived went extinct long before humans came along.

That's not a good reason not to try to preserve the species.   

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5 hours ago, Myles said:

That's not a good reason not to try to preserve the species.   

I would agree.

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11 hours ago, Black Monk said:

Does it really matter if cheetahs become extinct?

The answer to that is a resounding no.

Let them become extinct. Extinction is perfectly normal and natural. Most species that have ever lived went extinct long before humans came along.

 

Zero interest in enlightenment. Zero capacity for simple empathy. You are exactly what is wrong with society today.

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