Oxford University scientists recently published a research report in the journal Peerj that the iconic animal cheetahs on the African savannah, there are less than 8,000 African cheetahs in the whole of Africa, and there are about 2,000 cheetahs on the savannah, which may soon become extinct, and the "fatal blow" to African cheetahs is the rich in the Middle East.
Priced at 200,000 yuan, the cheetah has become a tool for the rich in the Middle East to show off their wealth
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 100,000 cheetahs in Africa, and by 1970, zoologists had counted again and found that the number of cheetahs was only about 14,000, and now there are less than 8,000 cheetahs living in the wild.
The endangered cheetah has not aroused the desire to protect cheetahs in the Middle East, some Middle Eastern tycoons in order to satisfy their own selfish desires, do a variety of things that are not conducive to the protection of cheetahs, in parts of the Middle East, raising cheetahs as pets has become a "fashion" in the local tyrant circle.
According to the Horn of Africa Conservation Fund, 300 cheetah cubs are trafficked each year, mainly from Ethiopia, northern Kenya, Somalia and Somaliland.
The cheetah cubs are smuggled to the anarchic border in Somaliland, packed in narrow crates or cardboard boxes, and transported by boat across the Gulf of Aden to their final destination: the Arabian Peninsula.
Most of these cheetah cubs end up living in the mansions of the rich in the Middle East, for cheetahs, if they do not die during the smuggling journey, they will eventually die in the captive mansion, because 70% of cheetah cubs die during the journey, so cheetah cubs are sold for up to 200,000 yuan.
Why do so many people like to keep cheetahs as pets
First, historical traditions
Humans have a long history of domesticating cheetahs, and the Sumerians have been domesticating cheetahs since 3000 BC.
In ancient Egypt, pharaohs kept cheetahs as pets and made works of art in their form, training cheetahs and bringing them close to pharaohs, symbolizing the protection of the throne, and ancient Egyptians also believed that cheetahs could "reincarnate the soul" of dead pharaohs.
In ancient India, cheetahs were often trained by royalty to become "cat hunters", and domesticated cheetahs participated in sports competitions in addition to assisting people in hunting.
Persian kings, Italian nobles, Russian princes and other royal families all used cheetahs as symbols of wealth and status, but cheetahs are difficult to breed in captivity, so they can only be hunted from the wild to meet demand.
Second, cheetahs are easier to tame
The spotted hyena with the "second brother of Africa" also began to be slowly domesticated, but because the spotted hyena was ugly, it was not favored by the rich in the Middle East, but African trainers tamed the spotted hyena and used the spotted hyena to make money by performing on the streets.
In order to tame the wild spotted hyenas, the trainer constantly beats them, or uses the starvation method to make the spotted hyenas submit, and if they do not obey, they will have no meat to eat, and if they do not obey the order, they will beat them in front of the spotted hyena locked in a cage until they obey the order.
There are still 100,000 spotted hyenas in the African wild today, which are difficult to tame, and if they are easy to tame, then their numbers will be greatly reduced.
Cheetahs are easier to domesticate than lions and hyenas, and lions and spotted hyenas often attack people in the African savannah, but wild cheetahs rarely attack people, so domesticated cheetahs are relatively more docile.
Third, cheetahs are easier to take out of the house
Whether an animal is easy to carry, is often a factor for people to consider whether it can be a suitable pet, adult cheetahs weigh about 100-150 pounds, adult male lions weigh up to 300-450 pounds, the body size is very large, the general luxury car can not fit.
The cheetah is relatively small, especially the cheetah that is not yet an adult, and the puppy is similar, after raising for a period of time, the size of a large dog is similar, and the Middle Eastern rich can let the cheetah sit in the co-pilot's seat.
Because cheetahs are relatively docile and not as fierce as lions, when taking cheetahs out to shop, they will attract many melon-eating crowds to watch and satisfy the vanity of Middle Eastern tycoons, which is the most important purpose of Middle Eastern tycoons raising cheetahs.
If you bring a lion or spotted hyena, everyone will be afraid when they see the teeth of the spotted hyena, let alone onlookers, see it from afar, they have to be scared to close the car window, then the rich in the Middle East will not see the envious eyes of the melon-eating masses.
The rich cheetah of the Middle East is used as a pet and causes fatal injuries to the cheetah
A cheetah cub sells for as much as 200,000 yuan, so many poachers have gone to catch cheetah cubs, in order to catch the cubs, kill all the parents of the cubs.
Many cheetahs were injured and died in the capture of poachers, and some escaped, but eventually died of starvation due to the physical exertion.
Many rich people in the Middle East have no experience in raising cheetahs and treat them like kittens and puppies, but cheetahs are a wild animal after all, they are certainly not as well-behaved as pet cats and pet dogs, and many domesticated cheetahs often offend their owners because of various problems, and are eventually beaten and abused by their owners.
On some foreign social networking sites, there are often pictures of rich people in the Middle East traveling with cheetahs, and in order to take better videos and photos, they often attack cheetah cubs and let cheetahs make some actions according to their ideas.
There are also many Middle Eastern rich people in the live broadcast, push cheetahs into the pool, watch cheetah cubs struggling in the water, some cheetah cubs are forced to eat ice cream and lollipops, for the video, live broadcast effect, no Middle East tycoons can not do.
Dr Laurie Markle said: "Cheetahs need space to run and special diets, but most people who keep cheetahs in captivity do not know how to care for cheetah cubs, resulting in many cheetah cubs dying within 1-2 years."
A veterinarian in the Middle East said: "In the past 5 years, he has treated more than 80 pet cheetahs", and many cheetahs he has cared for have not survived.
The veterinarian said he saw many cheetahs suffering from metabolic and digestive disorders because these owners didn't know what to give them.
The decline in cheetahs, besides being poached, what are the reasons?
First, it is not easy to reproduce under captive conditions
Although humans have been domesticating cheetahs for a long time, cheetahs are difficult to breed under artificial conditions, according to relevant records, during the reign of Akbar the Great, the Mughal emperor of India, raised 9,000 cheetahs, and only one litter of cheetah cubs was born.
Cheetahs are very susceptible to environmental changes and do not breed, and now the technology is so strong and the breeding technology is more advanced.
Second, cheetahs have too many natural enemies in the African savannah
In order to avoid competing with tough animals such as lions and spotted hyenas for prey, cheetahs have to choose to hunt at noon when lions and hyenas rest, even so, the probability of prey being robbed is as high as 70%.
Not only lions, hyenas, leopards and other large animals, but even honeypots, jackals, and even vultures dare to challenge the cheetah, without scruples to grab the prey that the cheetah has to get, and the timid and cowardly cheetah has to admit that he is unlucky and leave depressed.
Due to the compression of the habitat of African savannah animals, 90% of cheetahs have to live next to murderous predators such as lions, hyenas, and baboons, and 50% of cheetah cubs are brutally killed by them.
Third, cheetah inbreeding is serious
In the 70s of the 20th century, biologists collected blood samples from the field, and chromosome test results showed that many cheetahs had inbreeding, and cheetahs lacked genetic diversity.
There are two cases of harm to species from inbreeding
1. In the usual genetic background, dangerous atavism will prevail, resulting in physiological defects, stillbirths or infertility.
2. When inbreeding, the genomes of both parents are similar, and some recessive traits may appear in offspring, such as cheetah parents have a certain genetic disease, when inbreeding, the offspring adapt to reduce and the population decreases.
The genetic composition is single, the ability to resist epidemics is lost, the diversity to adapt to environmental changes is lost, and once the epidemic occurs, the race is easy to be "destroyed".
Fourth, run too fast and starve to death
Cheetah is the fastest animal running in the African savannah, its running speed can reach 113 kilometers per hour, from African Bolt, the best time of 100 meters is 9.58 seconds, converted to 37 kilometers per hour, so that in comparison, everyone knows how fast the cheetah is!
Cheetahs have super explosive power, but also sacrifice physical strength, among all the large animals in the African savannah, cheetahs are the thinnest, so their physical fitness is relatively poor, and they cannot chase their prey for a long time.
If a cheetah fails to hunt 6 times in a row, because it consumes a lot of physical strength, then the cheetah is likely to starve to death.
Fifth, Africa's population has skyrocketed, resulting in a decline in the number of cheetahs
Since most African countries gained independence in the 60s, their populations have exploded, from 270 million in the 60s to 924 million at the end of 2006, and 1.24 billion in 2017.
Due to the rapid growth of the population, the demand for food supply and living resources is greater, and for the African region, which is relatively backward in knowledge and technology, the country and people are extremely dependent on natural resources, while the utilization rate of resources is extremely low, and agricultural technology is backward.
In 1900~2000, Sudan cut down 9.6 million hectares of forest, Zambia cut 8.5 million hectares of forest, Congo cut down 5.3 million hectares of forest, Nigeria cut down 4 million hectares of forest, Zimbabwe cut down 3.2 million hectares of forest.
The massive felling of trees has led to the permanent loss of habitat of a large number of wildlife, the mass death of animals, and the plummeting population of the population, including cheetahs.
Seventh, the war has led to a decline in the number of cheetahs
Social unrest and war in some African countries have made cheetah hunting even more unscrupulous and fearless, and since 1950, many colonies have become independent, resulting in a surge in hunting and killing.
The war in some countries is indeed devastating for African cheetahs, some militants kill cheetahs when they see them, and a large number of innocent cheetahs die under gunfire.
Frequent wars and armed conflicts in African countries have also severely damaged the local natural environment, while seriously affecting the cheetah's biorhythm and physiological condition.
Write to the end: the wild Asian cheetah went extinct in 1948, the Asian cheetah officially went extinct in 1995, the Asian cheetah is the "speed running champion" of the animal kingdom, but still has not escaped human pursuit.
Asian cheetahs are mainly produced in South Asia and the Middle East, India was once the main source of Asian cheetahs, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places have Asian cheetahs distribution.
But long ago, some people went to the wild to catch small cheetahs to feed, and many rich people kept cheetahs at home, and some even raised dozens.
Later, in order to obtain the beautiful fur of cheetahs, many people killed adult cheetahs in large quantities, and the newborn baby cheetahs were captured by people, coupled with the reclamation of the grassland, planting crops, so that the Asian cheetah habitat was destroyed, food was reduced, by 1930, people could hardly see the Asian cheetah in the wild.