The northwest African cheetah, which is also known as the Saharan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) is a critically endangered subspecies of cheetah. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, “In northwest Africa, cheetahs are known with certainty to persist only in four countries: Algeria, Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso; [and] the total population is suspected to be fewer than 250 mature individuals, with a continuing decline, and no subpopulation larger than 50 mature individuals.”

Recently, scientists from the the Zoological Society of London have caught this very rare animal on camera in the Algerian Sahara by using camera traps—a non-invasive method for gathering data on animal populations.

Another critically endangered subspecies of cheetah is the Asiatic cheetah or Iranian cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus). From the Telegraph.co.uk:

There are thought to be less than 250 adult Northwest African or Saharan cheetahs, making the subspecies critically endangered, but very little is known about the cat.

The first camera-trap photographs of the cheetah, taken as part of a systematic survey of 1,750 square miles of the central Sahara, are providing scientists with information on population numbers, movement and how it interacts with its environment.

The cheetah is found across the Sahara desert and savannah of north and west Africa in small, fragmented populations, the biggest of which is thought to be in Algeria.

The survey identified four different Saharan cheetahs by examining the pattern of their spots, which are unique to each individual animal.

The research also provided photographic confirmation of the presence of sand cats in the region and, through the collection of a horn, confirmation that the scimitar-horned oryx – now extinct in the wild – had once lived in the area.

On the Net: Iran and West unite to save Asiatic cheetah

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