Northwest African cheetah
Northwest African cheetah | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Suborder: | Feliformia |
Family: | Felidae |
Subfamily: | Felinae |
Genus: | Acinonyx |
Species: | |
Subspecies: | A. j. hecki[1]
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Trinomial name | |
Acinonyx jubatus hecki[1] Hilzheimer, 1913
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A. j. hecki range historical today
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Synonyms | |
A. j. senegalensis (Blainville, 1843) |
The Northwest African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki), also known as the Saharan cheetah, is a cheetah subspecies native to the Sahara and the Sahel. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. In 2008, the population was suspected to number less than 250 mature individuals.[2]
The Northwest African cheetah was
Taxonomy
Felis jubata senegalensis was described by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1843 based on a cheetah from Senegal.[4] As this name was preoccupied, it is considered synonymous with A. j. hecki.[5][1]
Acinonyx hecki was the
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 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.[3]
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, Central and North Africa has been estimated at 457 individuals in an area of 1,037,322 km2 (400,512 sq mi), including 238 cheetahs in Central African Republic and Chad, 191 cheetahs in Algeria and Mali, and 25 cheetahs in the transboundary W, Arli, and Pendjari protected area complex in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger.[6]
In
In Mali, cheetahs were sighted in Adrar des Ifoghas and in the Kidal Region in the 1990s.[7] In 2010, a cheetah was photographed in Niger's Termit Massif by a camera trap.[8]
No cheetah was recorded in the
Between August 2008 and November 2010, four individuals were recorded by
Behavior and ecology
In the Sahara desert, day-time temperature exceeds 40 °C (104 °F), 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.[10]
The main prey of the Northwest African cheetah are
See also
References
- ^ OCLC 62265494.
- ^ a b c Belbachir, F. (2008). "Acinonyx jubatus ssp. hecki". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008: e.T221A13035738.
- ^ a b c Hilzheimer, M. (1913). "Über neue Gepparden nebst Bemerkungen über die Nomenklatur dieser Tiere". Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin (5): 283–292.
- ^ Allen, G. M. (1939). "Acinonyx Brookes. Cheetahs". A Checklist of African Mammals. Cambridge: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 83. pp. 232–234.
- ^ Rosevear, D.R. (1974). "Acinonyx jubatus (Schreber)". The carnivores of West Africa. London: Natural History Museum. pp. 493–511.
- PMID 28028225.
- ^ Drieux-Dumont, A.-M. (2002). "Etude préliminaire du statut du guépard du Sahara (Acinonyx jubatus), Adrar des Iforas, Mali". In Chapron, G.; Moutou, F. (eds.). L'Etude et la conservation des carnivores. Paris, France: Société Française pour l'Etude et la Protection des Mammifères.
- ^ Walker, M. (2010). 'Ghostly' Saharan cheetah filmed in Niger, Africa. BBC Earth News, 23 December 2010.
- ^ de Iongh, H.H., Croes, B., Rasmussen, G., Buij, R. and Funston, P. (2011). "The status of cheetah and African wild dog in the Benoue Ecosystem, North Cameroon" (PDF). Cat News. 55: 29–31.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ PMID 25629400.
- ^ Agence France-Presse (24 May 2020). "Critically Endangered Saharan Cheetah Seen in Algeria For The First Time in a Decade". Sciencealert.com. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
- .