Rapid Fire
International Cheetah Day
- 05 Dec 2024
- 1 min read
Source: ICD
Every year 4th December is marked as International Cheetah Day since 2010. The day is dedicated to emphasizing global efforts to prevent the cheetah's extinction and promote its conservation.
- American zoologist, Dr. Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in 1991, designated this day in honor of Khayam, a cheetah she raised.
- About Cheetah:
- Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are part of the felidae family and are among the oldest big cat species, with their ancestry dating back over 5 million years to the Miocene era (geological period from 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago).
- They are the world’s fastest land mammals, found in parts of Africa and Asia.
- They have vanished from over 75% of their historic range in Africa, with their population declining by more than 30% in the past two decades.
- Namibia has the world's largest population of cheetahs.
- Under the Cheetah Reintroduction Project, cheetahs were translocated to India from Namibia and South Africa in 2022 and 2023.
Read More: One Year of Project Cheetah
