The Southeast African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) is the nominate cheetah subspecies native to East and Southern Africa. It lives mainly in the Kalahari Basin and deserts of the Kalahari, the savannahs of Okavango Delta, and the grasslands of the Transvaal region in South Africa. In Namibia, it lives in farmlands.
Taxonomy
The Southern African cheetah was first described by German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in his book (The Mammals illustrated as in Nature with Descriptions), published in 1775. Schreber described the species on basis of a specimen from the Cape of Good Hope. It is therefore the nominate subspecies. Subpopulations have been called "South African cheetah" and "Namibian cheetah."Marker, L.L. (2002). Aspects of Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) Biology, Ecology and Conservation Strategies on Namibian Farmlands. Oxford: University of Oxford.
Following Schreber's description, other naturalists and zoologists also described cheetah specimens from many parts of Southern and East Africa that today are all considered synonyms of A. j. jubatus: Felis guttata proposed in 1804 by Johann Hermann; Felis fearonii proposed in 1834 by Andrew Smith; Felis lanea proposed in 1877 by Philip Sclater;Sclater, P. L. (1877). Woolly cheetah (Felis lanea). Proceedings of the general meetings for scientific business of the Zoological Society of London (1884): 476. Acinonyx jubatus obergi proposed in 1913 by Max Hilzheimer;Hilzheimer, M. (1913). Über neue Geparden nebst Bemerkungen über die Nomenklatur dieser Tiere. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin: 283−292. Acinonyx jubatus ngorongorensis proposed in 1913 by Hilzheimer on basis of a specimen from Ngorongoro, German East Africa; Acinonyx jubatus velox proposed in 1913 by Edmund Heller on basis of a cheetah that was shot by Kermit Roosevelt in June 1909 in the Kenyan highlands. Acinonyx rex proposed in 1927 by Reginald Innes Pocock on basis of a specimen from the Umvukwe Range in Rhodesia.
In 2005, the authors of Mammal Species of the World grouped A. j. guttata, A. j. lanea, A. j. obergi, and A. j. rex under A j. jubatus, whilst recognizing A. j. raineyi and A. j. velox as valid taxa and considering P. l. ngorongorensis as synonymous with raineyi.
In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group subsumed all cheetah populations from most parts of Eastern and Southern Africa to A. j. jubatus, thus making it the most widespread subspecies in the continent.
Evolutionary history From the early Pleistocene, the earliest African cheetah fossils have been found in the lower beds of the Olduvai Gorge site in northern Tanzania, although cheetah fossils in Southern Africa were found to be 3.5 to 3.0 million years old. The Southeast African cheetah is the second-oldest subspecies.
Cheetahs from Africa and Asia were previously considered as genetically identical with each other.O'Brien S. J. 1987. East African Cheetahs: Evidence for Two Population Bottlenecks? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 84:508-11. DNA research and analysis started in the early 1990s and showed that the Southern and East African cheetahs are indeed separate subspecies.
Until September 2009, the Asiatic cheetah was thought to be identical to African cheetahs. Stephen J. O'Brien from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity of the National Cancer Institute was of the opinion that they have been separated from each other for only 5,000 years, which is not enough time to be classified as distinct subspecies.
In early 2011, results of phylogeographic analysis of 94 cheetah samples from museum collections, wild and captive specimens, revealed that Southeast African and Asiatic cheetahs are genetically distinct, and probably diverged between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago. The mitochondrial DNA data indicate that the cheetah samples from East Africa had no common haplotype with samples from Southern Africa, although one haplotype present in cheetah samples from Tanzania and Kenya clustered with samples from South Africa. The population in East Africa might have derived from a relatively recent recolonization event. The divergence between the cheetah populations in Southern, East and Northern Africa occurred between 6,700 and 32,400 years ago.
Genetics
Historically, cheetahs were thought to be genetically homogeneous. In 2011, results of a phylogeographic study revealed that the Asiatic cheetah and cheetah populations in Africa are genetically distinct and separated between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago.
The woolly cheetah was discovered in the late 19th century by English zoologist Philip Sclater. It was considered as a separate species of cheetah that had a thicker body, and longer and denser fur. Several specimens were obtained. These creatures may be the same species as the present-day cheetah, but with a genetic disposition to long fur. In 1877, Sclater, of the Zoological Society of London, wrote of a recent acquisition by the zoo. In 1878, a second woolly cheetah was reported as a preserved specimen in the South African Museum. Both the London and South African specimens had come from Beaufort West. In 1884, a third skin was obtained from the same area, though this had more distinct spots and was a little smaller. By the late 1880s, the trophy hunters had eliminated the woolly cheetahs; from the number and locality of specimens, this variant seems to have evolved very recently (generations rather than millennia); perhaps all those animals (it seems only a handful are known at best) were the offspring of a single couple born around 1875, or maybe one more generation. The woolly cheetah has, in any case, vanished.
The king cheetah was considered a different species in 1927 by naturalist Reginald Innes Pocock. It was found to be a mutation caused by a recessive gene. The king cheetah is a rare variant of the Southern cheetah, first discovered in southern Rhodesia in 1925. A king cheetah was first found in South Africa in 1940 and in Botswana in 1942. However, in 1981, king cheetahs were shown to have never been a different species, as king cheetahs were born from regular parents at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre in South Africa, and another king cheetah were born from two female cheetahs having mated with a wild-caught male cheetah from the Transvaal Province, and more king cheetahs were born later at the De Wildt Cheetah Centre. The king cheetahs are found in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. In 2012, the cause of this alternative coat pattern was found to be a mutation in the gene for transmembrane aminopeptidase Q (Taqpep), the same gene responsible for the striped "mackerel" versus blotched "classic" patterning seen in tabby cats..
The cheetah also has melanism as one of its rare color morphs. A melanistic cheetah in Zambia was seen by Vesey Fitzgerald in the company of a spotted cheetah.
Characteristics
The cheetah is a medium-sized cat. An adult male cheetah's total size can measure from and for females. Adult cheetahs are tall at the shoulder. Males are slightly taller than females and have slightly bigger heads with wider incisors and longer mandibles.
Measurements taken of wild cheetahs in Namibia indicate that the females range in head-and-body length from with long tails, and weigh between ; males range in head-and-body length from with long tails, and weigh between ..
The cheetah has a bright yellow or sometimes a golden coat, and its fur is slightly thicker than that of other subspecies. The white underside is very distinct, especially on the neck and breast, and it has less spotting on its belly. The spots on the face are more pronounced, and as a whole its spots seem more dense than those of most other subspecies. The tear marks are notably thicker at the corners of the mouth, and almost all of them have distinct brown mustache markings. Like the Asiatic cheetah, it is known to have fur behind its tail and have both white and black tips at the end of its tail. However, the cheetah may also have only a black tip at the end of its tail.
Distribution and habitat
The Southeast African cheetah usually lives on grasslands, savannahs, scrub forests, and arid environments such as deserts and semidesert steppes. These cheetahs can be found in open fields, where they chase and hunt herbivorous mammals such as antelopes at a very high speed. In South Africa, the cheetah also prefers woodlands (in Kruger National Park), shrublands, high mountains, mountainous grasslands, and montane areas where favorable prey are mostly available.
The Southeast African cheetah is currently the most common subspecies and was widespread everywhere in southern to central Africa, ranging from South Africa to the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo (Katanga Province) and southern Tanzania. Its range is now greatly reduced, where it occurs in an area of , 22% of its original range.
In the past, less than 10,000 cheetahs were hunted in Namibian farmlands. Previously estimated at mere 2,000 individuals since the 1990s, as of 2015, over 3,500 cheetahs live in Namibia today. The country maintains the largest population of wild cheetahs worldwide. About 90–95% of the cheetahs live on Namibian farmlands; others live in the Kalahari Basin, the coastal deserts of Namib and Kaokoveld, and the central to northeastern region of the country. Although Namibian cheetahs are mostly found outside of protected areas, they also live in Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary, Namib-Naukluft National Park, and Bwabwata National Park. The cheetahs are rather uncommon in Etosha National Park and in Palmwag.
With an approximate population of 2,000 cheetahs as of 2016, Botswana has the second-largest population of cheetahs. They are mostly found in arid habitats of the Central Kalahari, Mokolodi Nature Reserve, and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (known as Gemsbok National Park in Botswana) in the south, and in the southwest and also in the northern region of the country that holds the largest prey base, such as in Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park, and Moremi Game Reserve. Khutse Game Reserve is also known to contain high abundance of suitable prey base for cheetahs, such as springboks, gemsboks, and wildebeests. Cheetahs are rarely found in the eastern Botswana and at the Zimbabwean border.
In South Africa, cheetahs live in the Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, and Northern Cape Provinces. After conservation efforts throughout the years, cheetahs have been reintroduced in the eastern, western, and southern parts, and recently in the Free State province of the country. Over 90% of the cheetah population is found outside protected areas such as game reserves and in farmlands.Human Wildlife Conflict, Cheetah Conservation Fund More than 412 cheetahs are in Kruger National Park, subpopulations of 300 to 350 in parks and reserves, and 400 to 500 free-roaming on farmlands in the Limpopo and North West Province, although the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is the stronghold for cheetahs. Kruger and Kalahari Gemsbok National Parks hold the largest populations; they are home to roughly 42% of South Africa's cheetahs. Cheetahs had not always been common in South Africa. As of now, the country contains the third-largest population of cheetahs after years of conservation actions and reintroductions into the wild. In 2016, it is estimated about 1,500 adult cheetahs live in the wild.