According to the latest division, cheetahs can be divided into three subspecies: the nominate subspecies of cheetahs, the Indian subspecies of cheetahs, and the West African subspecies of cheetahs. Among them, the cheetah nominate subspecies is also called the South African subspecies, mainly distributed in the grasslands of east and south Africa, is our most familiar cheetah subspecies; cheetah Indian subspecies is also called Asian cheetah, distributed in Asia, has been extinct in many countries in Asia, currently only exists in Iran, the number is only about 50; cheetah West African subspecies is also called Sahara cheetah, Sahara cat, mainly distributed in the Sahara Desert in northwest Africa, is the most mysterious cheetah, we know very little about it, and even many people have not heard of this subspecies.
Saharan cheetahs live in desert and semi-desert areas, where vegetation and prey are scarce, the climate is hot, and the daytime temperature is as high as 40 degrees Celsius or more, making life very difficult. Compared to cheetahs living in the steppes of southeastern Africa, Saharan cheetahs have lighter spots on their fur and are slightly smaller – lighter in color allows them to move better in the desert, while smaller sizes are mainly due to the scarcity of prey.
Scientists have found through infrared cameras placed in the wild that sahara cheetahs behave in a severe way that is severely constrained by the harsh desert environment: in order to avoid the heat of the desert during the day and reduce the loss of water in the body, they mostly carry out activities at night; the desert is short of water, they can get most of the water needed by the body from the prey; they like to prey such as antelopes and hares, but because the prey is scarce, their range of activity is much larger than that of the cheetahs living on the grassland. This also means that their population distribution density is not too high.
The survey found that the Sahara cheetah is the least densely distributed of all the large predators in Africa, appearing only 1 per 2,000 to 10,000 square kilometers of land. Saharan cheetahs are so few in number and so wide in range that it's not easy to photograph them. The probability of an infrared camera in the wild capturing a Sahara cheetah is about one in a thousand, that is, only one out of 1,000 infrared cameras can shoot in a day, or an infrared camera can only shoot one day in 1,000 days.
Because life is too difficult, the Saharan cheetahs who are photographed are often "yellow-faced and thin", which is very distressing.
Pictured: An infrared camera captures a skinny snow leopard, which is heart-wrenching.
Once, Saharan cheetahs were distributed in many countries in west and northern Africa, but now they have become extinct in Libya, Egypt and other countries, and are currently only distributed in Algeria, Niger, Mali and other countries, with a total of only about 250 remaining, belonging to the critically endangered cat subspecies.
Pictured: Cheetah photographed by an infrared camera in Algeria.
Although the saharan cheetah is small, scientists believe that this cat has a high conservation value: because of their wide distribution area, every Sahara cheetah protected means protecting a large area of land ecosystem. Now, due to habitat loss and human hunting, there are only about 7,000 cheetahs left in the world, and the number is still declining. In rescuing cheetahs, we cannot ignore Saharan cheetahs, although they are not known to many people. (Welcome to the big cats are coming, and share interesting feline science knowledge for you every day.) Original work, plagiarism must be investigated) #This is very scientific ##奇妙的动物 #