Cheetahs are the fastest land animals but among the most vulnerable large cats, facing compounding pressures from habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and the live capture trade that supplies the illegal pet market in the Middle East.
Wild cheetahs face welfare impacts from habitat fragmentation that increases encounters with competing predators and reduces hunting success. Females with cubs at den sites are particularly vulnerable to disturbance causing den abandonment. Live capture for the pet trade is acutely traumatic — young cubs are typically taken after their mother is killed, experiencing the death of their mother before the stress of capture and transport. Mortality during smuggling is very high. Surviving animals in private captivity experience chronic welfare deprivation — severe space restriction, often inappropriate diet and social isolation or forced proximity with humans rather than conspecifics.