The Northwest African cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus hecki''), also known as the Saharan cheetah, is a

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

subspecies native to the Sahara and the Sahel. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

. In 2008, the population was suspected to number less than 250 mature individuals. The Northwest African cheetah was described by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

Max Hilzheimer in 1913 under the scientific name ''Acinonyx hecki''.

Taxonomy

''Felis jubata senegalensis'' was described by

Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (; 12 September 1777 – 1 May 1850) was a French zoologist and anatomist. Life Blainville was born at Arques, near Dieppe. As a young man he went to Paris to study art, but ultimately devoted himself to natur ...

in 1843 based on a cheetah from Senegal. As this name was preoccupied, it is considered synonymous with ''A. j. hecki''. ''Acinonyx hecki'' was the scientific name proposed by Max Hilzheimer in 1913, based upon a captive cheetah in the Berlin Zoological Garden that also originated in Senegal.

Characteristics

The Northwest African cheetah is quite different in appearance from the other African cheetahs. Its coat is shorter and nearly white in color, with spots that fade from black over the spine to light brown on the legs. The face has few or even no spots, and the tear stripes (dark stripes running from the medial

canthus The canthus (pl. canthi, palpebral commissures) is either corner of the eye where the upper and lower eyelids meet. More specifically, the inner and outer canthi are, respectively, the medial and lateral ends/angles of the palpebral fissure. T ...

of each eye down the side of the muzzle to the corner of the mouth) are often missing. The body shape is basically the same as that of the sub-Saharan cheetah, except that it is somewhat smaller.

Distribution and habitat

This cheetah ranges in the western and central Sahara and the Sahel in small, fragmented populations. Based on data from 2007 to 2012, the cheetah population in

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, Central and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

has been estimated at 457 individuals in an area of , including 238 cheetahs in

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

and Chad, 191 cheetahs in

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and Mali, and 25 cheetahs in the transboundary W National Park, W, Arli National Park, Arli, and Pendjari National Park, Pendjari protected area complex in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. In Niger, populations occur in the northern parts of the country in the Ténéré desert and in the southern savanna region of W National Park. Records in Togo date to the 1970s. The Saharan cheetah is thought to be Extinction, regionally extinct in Morocco, Western Sahara, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. In Mali, cheetahs were sighted in Adrar des Ifoghas and in the Kidal Region in the 1990s. In 2010, a cheetah was photographed in Niger's Termit Massif by a camera trap. No cheetah was recorded in the North Province, Cameroon during a survey carried out between January 2008 and May 2010. Between August 2008 and November 2010, four individuals were recorded by camera traps in Ahaggar National Park located in south central Algeria. A single cheetah was once again filmed and photographed by Algerian naturalists in 2020 in the same park in the Atakor volcanic field whose peaks approach a height of .

Behavior and ecology

In the Sahara desert, day-time temperature exceeds , water is scarce and rainfall irregular. Two camera trapping surveys in the Ahaggar massif revealed that cheetahs in this area exhibit several behavioral adaptations to this harsh climate: they are predominantly nocturnal and active between sunset and early mornings; they travel larger distances and occur at a lower density than cheetahs living in savannas. The main prey of the Northwest African cheetah are antelopes which have adapted to an arid environment, such as the addax, Dorcas gazelle, rhim gazelle, and dama gazelle. It also preys on smaller mammals such as hares. Cheetahs can subsist without direct access to water, obtaining water indirectly from the blood of their prey.

References

External links