Today marks the day of the fastest land animal on Earth.
The one that can reach 110 km/h in under three seconds!
The one running just as fast toward extinction in the wild: the cheetah.
Sandibe andBeyond Reserve, Okavango Delta. Botswana.
© Etendues Sauvages
In 2023, only a handful of African territories remain home to this magnificent and fragile predator, with roughly 7,100 individuals left in the wild. An estimated 100,000 roamed free in 1900.
The factors behind its ongoing decline are numerous, but the main cause today is the shrinking space available to it, given that its way of life requires a very specific biotope.
National parks and conservation areas are more essential than ever to its survival — provided they aren’t subject to tourism overcrowding, as is too often the case in parts of East Africa.
Here in Botswana, certain private concessions, reserves, and national parks manage to combine the best of both worlds: wide open spaces with low vegetation and carefully managed visitor numbers that don’t interfere with its highly specific hunting technique.
It raises the question: could responsible tourism be the cornerstone of protecting this remarkable animal?
