Human activity, rather than predators, could be the major cause of the decline of the cheetah population, according to new research by Queen's University Belfast.

Wild cheetahs are down to under 10,000 from 100,000 a century ago and bigger predators are often blamed monopolising available food as their habitat becomes restricted.

But a new study published today in the international journal Science by academics from Queen’s, other Universities and conservation institutions, shows that this may not be the case.

The scientists discovered that, in searching for prey, cheetahs incur more energy loss than in outbursts of running, which are infrequent. Where their prey have been reduced or re-distributed through human impacts, their ability to balance energy budgets has been severely curtailed.

Lead researcher Dr Michael Scantlebury from Queen’s School of Biological Sciences said: "We studied 19 free-roaming cheetahs each for two weeks across two sites in southern Africa, one in the Kalahari desert and the other in a wetter area. We injected heavy water into the animals before tracking them continuously and collecting their faeces. From these samples, we could determine how much of this heavy water they were losing each day and calculate their energy expenditures.

"What we found was that the cats’ energy expenditure was not significantly different from other mammals of similar size – cheetahs may be Ferraris but most of the time they are driving slowly. What our study showed was that their major energy costs seem to be incurred by travelling, rather than securing prey. If you can imagine walking up and down sand dunes in high temperatures day in, day out, with no water to drink you start to get a feel for how challenging these cats’ daily lives are, and yet they remain remarkably adapted and resilient.

"They can even withstand other species, such as lions and hyenas, stealing their prey. The reality may be that human activities – for example erecting fences that inhibit free travel or over-hunting cheetah prey – are forcing cheetahs to travel ever-increasing distances and that this may be compromising their energy more than any other single factor. Our study, which is the result of ten years’ of research, seriously questions previously held assumptions about the factors affecting population viability in large predators threatened by extinction."

(IT/CD)