3 Asiatic cheetah cubs were born in captivity recently. This was exciting, because this species is on the brink of extinction – there is only thought to be about 12 remaining in the wild, down from about 100 in 2010, a survey in 2017 stated fewer than 50 mature individuals.
Is this the last gasp for this species? Will the sight of a young cub like this never occur again?
As this map makes clear, all cheetah subspecies are only found in a tiny portion of their historical range, but this is worse for the Asiatic cheetah than any other. There has been some disagreement about whether cheetah should be translocated from Africa to India to reseed their cheetah population. I would argue that this should wait until the Asiatic cheetah either recovers or is gone. While the genetic differences are small, they could make significant difference on the ground. If the Asiatic cheetah continues its decline towards extinction, then things would be different.
With the complete extinction of the Asiatic cheetah, I feel that reintroduction of the cheetah from the most similar cousin in Africa would be a reasonable move (though only when all other animals in India are more secure in their future)
