According to conservationists The Asiatic cheetah which is also known as Iranian Cheetah is on the verge of extinction. Only less than 50 of the critically endangered species still alive. It is the second rarest cat species.
-Iran, home to all these cheetah, has already witnessed the extinction of the Asiatic lion and the Caspian tiger. The warning comes in the wake of the United Nation’s decision to pull funding from the protection of the second-rarest cat species. Today it is only survived in Iran.
-Cheetahs are killed in droves by poachers, and local farmers, who kill them to protect their livestock. Apart from these causes large number are lost as roadkill, being run over on highways. The onus is now on the Iranian government to step up funding for the planet’s fastest land animals.
–During the British era India it was called hunting leopard.
About Asiatic cheetah
-The Asiatic cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, is slightly smaller and paler than its African cousin. It has a fawn-coloured coat with black spots on its head and neck, and distinctive black “tear marks” running from the corner of each eye down the side of its nose.
-Cheetahs – both African and Asian – are the fastest land animals on Earth, using their speed to bring down antelope, gazelle and other moderately large prey. Asiatic cheetahs were once widespread across the continent but were eradicated in India, where they were hunted for sport. The spread of farming also greatly reduced numbers in the 19th and 20th centuries.
