Illegal Wildlife Trade
For thousands of years, the ancient world’s rich and royal kept cheetahs in captivity. The pharaohs of Ancient Egypt kept cheetahs as close companions. Italian nobles, Russian princes, and Indian royalty used cheetahs for hunting and as a status symbol for their wealth and nobility. Because cheetahs do not breed well in captivity, they had to be caught from the wild to support this exorbitant demand, which wreaked havoc on cheetah populations, especially in Asia, and is likely the leading reason that the Asiatic cheetah is extinct throughout the majority of Asia.
Today, there is still a high demand for cheetahs as pets. To supply this demand, cheetahs have to be illegally captured from the wild and then smuggled to the different parts of the world they are desired. Out of all the cheetah cubs smuggled, only one of in six survives the journey, therefore requiring even more cubs be captured from the wild to meet the demand. The illegal trade in cheetahs is therefore a significant contributor to the cheetah’s population decline and endangerment.