Cheetah - #2 endangered species

Living and hunting space for this fascinating cat is getting smaller everyday. Due to the fact, that these fastest runners on our planet need quite a big area to hunt in and that they are looked upon as a kind of plague by the farmers in Namibia they were killed by hundreds because mankind is growing rapidly, too, and man is stronger than the cat, thanks to his ability to build lethal long distance weapons. There are less and less catz left. Some have been moving away from man into the mountain regions, but sooner or later they would die there because they need space for hunting down prey. As the genealogic pool gets smaller as well, the cats have another new enemy, that is an increasing weakness of their immune system. They are easier prey for viruses and bacteria infections which surely isn't, what these majestic creatures have earned... so it's no wonder more and more of them disappear from the face of earth. I was very lucky to have seen cheetahs in their natural habitat and even came very close to some manraised adult and baby cheetahs. Hearing, seeing, smelling and feeling these cats is an impression hard to describe. The strongest feeling for me was RESPECT. (the second was this incredible rough tongue;-)

There are many organizations in SouthAfrica which try to preserve the cats from extinction. Cheetahs not born in nature are quite easy to handle and do never turn against humans. There has a network of organizations been established, that try to refresh the gene-pool by exchanging cats all over the world. A big advantage of man-raised cheetahs is, that in captivity (like in animal parks) they behave normal (wild cheetahs would run up and down all day and sooner or later commit suicide by running into fences or against walls) and it's possible to e.g. go into schools and teach children about these cats. But all these efforts won't save the cheetah. Even if there were enough cats raised again and the gene-pool had recovered - you can't get them out in the wild again... they wouldn't know their enemies and there won't be more space for them in the future. I, personally have the opinion that it's inevitable that many animals will be extinct because mankind needs more and more room. And it's hard to share room with wild hunters that endager yourself. So preservation is surely a good move, so we can give some cats a good time in their lives and we can show them to our kids and grand-kids...because the real feeling is much stronger than standing in front of a pvc-set of bones and watching some video where a cat slays an antelope... Home -- zurück zu Berichte (c) Shirarch 21.09.2002   Cheetah - #2 endangered species Living and hunting space for this fascinating cat is getting smaller everyday. Due to the fact, that these fastest runners on our planet need quite a big area to hunt in and that they are looked upon as a kind of plague by the farmers in Namibia they were killed by hundreds because mankind is growing rapidly, too, and man is stronger than the cat, thanks to his ability to build lethal long distance weapons. There are less and less catz left. Some have been moving away from man into the mountain regions, but sooner or later they would die there because they need space for hunting down prey. As the genealogic pool gets smaller as well, the cats have another new enemy, that is an increasing weakness of their immune system. They are easier prey for viruses and bacteria infections which surely isn't, what these majestic creatures have earned... so it's no wonder more and more of them disappear from the face of earth. I was very lucky to have seen cheetahs in their natural habitat and even came very close to some manraised adult and baby cheetahs. Hearing, seeing, smelling and feeling these cats is an impression hard to describe. The strongest feeling for me was RESPECT. (the second was this incredible rough tongue;-) There are many organizations in SouthAfrica which try to preserve the cats from extinction. Cheetahs not born in nature are quite easy to handle and do never turn against humans. There has a network of organizations been established, that try to refresh the gene-pool by exchanging cats all over the world. A big advantage of man-raised cheetahs is, that in captivity (like in animal parks) they behave normal (wild cheetahs would run up and down all day and sooner or later commit suicide by running into fences or against walls) and it's possible to e.g. go into schools and teach children about these cats. But all these efforts won't save the cheetah. Even if there were enough cats raised again and the gene-pool had recovered - you can't get them out in the wild again... they wouldn't know their enemies and there won't be more space for them in the future. I, personally have the opinion that it's inevitable that many animals will be extinct because mankind needs more and more room. And it's hard to share room with wild hunters that endager yourself. So preservation is surely a good move, so we can give some cats a good time in their lives and we can show them to our kids and grand-kids...because the real feeling is much stronger than standing in front of a pvc-set of bones and watching some video where a cat slays an antelope... Home -- zurück zu Berichte (c) Shirarch 21.09.2002