Dataset Information

The global decline of cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and what it means for conservation.

ABSTRACT: Establishing and maintaining protected areas (PAs) are key tools for biodiversity conservation. However, this approach is insufficient for many species, particularly those that are wide-ranging and sparse. The cheetah Acinonyx jubatus exemplifies such a species and faces extreme challenges to its survival. Here, we show that the global population is estimated at ?7,100 individuals and confined to 9% of its historical distributional range. However, the majority of current range (77%) occurs outside of PAs, where the species faces multiple threats. Scenario modeling shows that, where growth rates are suppressed outside PAs, extinction rates increase rapidly as the proportion of population protected declines. Sensitivity analysis shows that growth rates within PAs have to be high if they are to compensate for declines outside. Susceptibility of cheetah to rapid decline is evidenced by recent rapid contraction in range, supporting an uplisting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List threat assessment to endangered. Our results are applicable to other protection-reliant species, which may be subject to systematic underestimation of threat when there is insufficient information outside PAs. Ultimately, conserving many of these species necessitates a paradigm shift in conservation toward a holistic approach that incentivizes protection and promotes sustainable human-wildlife coexistence across large multiple-use landscapes.

SUBMITTER: Durant SM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5255576 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The global decline of cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and what it means for conservation.

Durant Sarah M SM Mitchell Nicholas N Groom Rosemary R Pettorelli Nathalie N Ipavec Audrey A Jacobson Andrew P AP Woodroffe Rosie R Böhm Monika M Hunter Luke T B LT Becker Matthew S MS Broekhuis Femke F Bashir Sultana S Andresen Leah L Aschenborn Ortwin O Beddiaf Mohammed M Belbachir Farid F Belbachir-Bazi Amel A Berbash Ali A Brandao de Matos Machado Iracelma I Breitenmoser Christine C Chege Monica M Cilliers Deon D Davies-Mostert Harriet H Dickman Amy J AJ Ezekiel Fabiano F Farhadinia Mohammad S MS Funston Paul P Henschel Philipp P Horgan Jane J de Iongh Hans H HH Jowkar Houman H Klein Rebecca R Lindsey Peter Andrew PA Marker Laurie L Marnewick Kelly K Melzheimer Joerg J Merkle Johnathan J M'soka Jassiel J Msuha Maurus M O'Neill Helen H Parker Megan M Purchase Gianetta G Sahailou Samaila S Saidu Yohanna Y Samna Abdoulkarim A Schmidt-Küntzel Anne A Selebatso Eda E Sogbohossou Etotépé A EA Soultan Alaaeldin A Stone Emma E van der Meer Esther E van Vuuren Rudie R Wykstra Mary M Young-Overton Kim K

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20161227 3

Establishing and maintaining protected areas (PAs) are key tools for biodiversity conservation. However, this approach is insufficient for many species, particularly those that are wide-ranging and sparse. The cheetah Acinonyx jubatus exemplifies such a species and faces extreme challenges to its survival. Here, we show that the global population is estimated at ∼7,100 individuals and confined to 9% of its historical distributional range. However, the majority of current range (77%) occurs outsi ...[more]

PMID: 28028225

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Project description:Assessing the numbers and distribution of threatened species is a central challenge in conservation, often made difficult because the species of concern are rare and elusive. For some predators, this may be compounded by their being sparsely distributed over large areas. Such is the case with the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus. The IUCN Red List process solicits comments, is democratic, transparent, widely-used, and has recently assessed the species. Here, we present additional methods to that process and provide quantitative approaches that may afford greater detail and a benchmark against which to compare future assessments. The cheetah poses challenges, but also affords unique opportunities. It is photogenic, allowing the compilation of thousands of crowd-sourced data. It is also persecuted for killing livestock, enabling estimation of local population densities from the numbers persecuted. Documented instances of persecution in areas with known human and livestock density mean that these data can provide an estimate of where the species may or may not occur in areas without observational data. Compilations of extensive telemetry data coupled with nearly 20,000 additional observations from 39 sources show that free-ranging cheetahs were present across approximately 789,700 km2 of Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (56%, 22%, 12% and 10% respectively) from 2010 to 2016, with an estimated adult population of 3,577 animals. We identified a further 742,800 km2 of potential cheetah habitat within the study region with low human and livestock densities, where another ∼3,250 cheetahs may occur. Unlike many previous estimates, we make the data available and provide explicit information on exactly where cheetahs occur, or are unlikely to occur. We stress the value of gathering data from public sources though these data were mostly from well-visited protected areas. There is a contiguous, transboundary population of cheetah in southern Africa, known to be the largest in the world. We suggest that this population is more threatened than believed due to the concentration of about 55% of free-ranging individuals in two ecoregions. This area overlaps with commercial farmland with high persecution risk; adult cheetahs were removed at the rate of 0.3 individuals per 100 km2 per year. Our population estimate for confirmed cheetah presence areas is 11% lower than the IUCN's current assessment for the same region, lending additional support to the recent call for the up-listing of this species from vulnerable to endangered status.

Dataset Information

The global decline of cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and what it means for conservation.

Publications

The global decline of cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and what it means for conservation.

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