Cheetahs live at low densities and therefore need large areas for a viable population long-term.
There are only thought to be 457 cheetah left across the Sahara. These cheetah, however roam an area of about 400,000 square miles (1 million square km). Now it is clear that living in an environment as inhospitable is going to be hard; there is going to be little vegetation and as such there will be few herbivores. Added to this is the fact that there is regular human wars and similar in the area, as well as famines. As a result, far more of the small antelope from the region have been hunted by humans – leaving little for the cheetahs to eat.
One of the advantages of the Saharan cheetah, is that it does not usually need to drink directly – getting what liquid it needs from the blood of its prey.
In many instances there is little we can do to protect this animal. They are likely to do better in places where the land they live on is protected. Having said that, they need to be able to roam between reserves. The long term future of this animal is not assured, and global warming may make this animals life even harder, still for the time being its long term survival while not assured is certainly reasonably likely.
