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The Cheetah was once found from Africa
through the Middle East to southern Asia, and as far east as India. Today, the
range of the cheetah has been drastically reduced. Substantial numbers of cheetahs
survive only in Namibia and Kenya. In Asia, only fragmented populations remain.
It is estimated that in 1900 the world population stood at about 100,000. It was
then a common sight on the open plains of Africa, the Middle East, and parts of
Asia, but since then the numbers have dwindled dramatically. A survey made in
the 1970s showed that there were only 14,000 left in the whole of the vast continent
of Africa. This revealed a halving of the total cheetah population in less than
two decades. Today that figure has fallen again, to between 9,000 and 12,000.
Outside Africa there is only a relic population of a mere 200 in a remote area
of Iran.
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| The Middle Eastern stronghold of Arabia saw its last cheetah in 1950.
And the last ones seen in India were three adults caught in the headlights of
a car as it drove down a country road one night in 1952. The driver, a local ruler,
stopped his car, got out, and calmly shot them. That was the end of the Indian
Cheetah. The species has never been seen on that continent again. |
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