Are Cheetahs Endangered? Cheetah Numbers, Status and Threats

What is the cheetah’s conservation status?

The cheetah is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, which means it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. Its population trend is decreasing. Two of its subspecies are in much worse shape: the Asiatic cheetah of Iran and the Northwest African cheetah of the Sahara are both listed as Critically Endangered.

The cheetah is also listed in Appendix I of CITES, the international treaty on wildlife trade, which bans commercial trade in wild cheetahs and their parts between countries.

How many cheetahs are left?

A major 2017 study led by Sarah Durant estimated about 7,100 cheetahs in the wild, and a later estimate used by the IUCN put the number of mature adults at about 6,500. Almost all of them live in Africa. Namibia, Botswana and South Africa hold the biggest share, while Kenya and Tanzania are the main strongholds in East Africa.

The same 2017 study found that cheetahs now live in only about 9% of their historical range. More than three-quarters of the land where cheetahs still live lies outside protected areas, on farms and communal land, where they come into conflict with people. The authors called for the cheetah to be uplisted to Endangered.

Why are cheetahs declining?

Cheetahs face several overlapping threats:

• Habitat loss and fragmentation. Farms, settlements, fences and roads break up the open grasslands that cheetahs need. Cheetahs range very widely, so they need huge connected areas.
• Conflict with farmers. Cheetahs sometimes kill sheep, goats or calves, and farmers may kill cheetahs in revenge or to protect their herds.
• Loss of prey. Where antelopes and gazelles are hunted out for bushmeat or replaced by livestock, cheetahs have less to eat. Read more in what do cheetahs eat?
• Illegal trade. Cheetah cubs are smuggled, especially from the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden, to be sold as exotic pets. Many die on the way. Skins and body parts are also traded illegally.
• Road traffic. Cars kill cheetahs in parts of Africa and Iran.
• Competition with lions and hyenas. Inside parks, these larger predators kill many cubs and steal kills, so even protected areas cannot hold large numbers of cheetahs.

Does low genetic diversity put cheetahs at risk?

Cheetahs have unusually low genetic diversity, the result of population crashes thousands of years ago, possibly around 100,000 and 12,000 years ago. Cheetahs are so genetically alike that skin grafts between unrelated animals can be accepted.

Low diversity has been linked to sperm defects, poor breeding in captivity and possibly greater vulnerability to disease. However, most experts think the main threats today are human ones: habitat loss, conflict and trade. Wild cheetahs still breed well when they have enough space and prey.

Asiatic cheetahs in Iran

Cheetahs once ranged from the Arabian Peninsula across the Middle East and Central Asia to India. Today the only wild Asiatic cheetahs live in the deserts and dry hills of central and eastern Iran. Surveys in 2016–2017 suggested fewer than 50 remained, scattered across a vast area of Iran’s central plateau. Later surveys have found only small numbers of adults and cubs, so the subspecies remains on the edge of extinction.

The main threats in Iran are loss of prey, road traffic, livestock herders and their dogs, and very small, scattered populations. Iran has a dedicated conservation project for the Asiatic cheetah and celebrates National Cheetah Day on 31 August.

Cheetahs in India: Project Cheetah

India’s own cheetahs were hunted and trapped to extinction, and the species was declared extinct in the country in 1952. In September 2022, under a program called Project Cheetah, eight cheetahs were flown from Namibia to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, followed by twelve from South Africa in February 2023. These are African cheetahs, not the Asiatic subspecies.

In March 2023 a female gave birth to four cubs, the first cheetahs known to be born in India in more than 70 years, and more litters followed. The project has also faced problems: a number of adults and cubs died from causes including infections, heat and fights, and many surviving cheetahs spent long periods in enclosures. A second site, Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, began receiving cheetahs in 2025. Whether India can build a self-sustaining wild population is still uncertain.

How are cheetahs being protected?

Conservation work focuses on helping cheetahs live alongside people outside parks. In Namibia, the Cheetah Conservation Fund has bred and placed livestock guarding dogs with farmers since the 1990s, reducing livestock losses and the killing of cheetahs. Other projects pay compensation for losses, improve livestock management and support local communities that benefit from wildlife tourism.

In South Africa, a managed network of fenced reserves moves cheetahs between sites to keep populations genetically healthy, and cheetahs have been reintroduced to reserves in Malawi and elsewhere. The Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah and African Wild Dogs, started in 2007, coordinates planning across African countries.

Cheetahs also face high natural losses: in some parks, most cubs die before they become independent at about 18–20 months. Learn more about cub survival in how long do cheetahs live?, and about what makes cheetahs such remarkable hunters in how fast is a cheetah?