Cheetahs face severe population decline driven partly by livestock conflict, as herders kill cheetahs to protect animals, but innovative coexistence tools including livestock guardian dogs are demonstrating promising results.
Cheetahs killed in livestock conflicts suffer through shooting, trapping, and poisoning. Unlike larger predators, cheetahs are often killed even when alternative prey is available, because their presence alone triggers fear of future losses. Population-level retaliatory killing is a leading driver of the species's decline outside protected areas. Individuals face the welfare cost of living in a landscape where every encounter with humans represents a mortality risk, generating chronic stress. Guardian dog programs provide a welfare-positive solution — protecting livestock without harming cheetahs, and allowing cheetahs to live alongside farming communities rather than being eliminated from agricultural landscapes.