What If Gone

Species → Cheetah

Cheetah

Acinonyx jubatus

6,670 adult individuals
Extinction risk Vulnerable
PredatorSavannaScientific controversyConservation
Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
Photo: Charles Barilleaux, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

What if it disappeared?

Impact Low
Ongoing

Cheetahs hunt markedly less often when they detect lions or spotted hyenas nearby, and favor areas with low densities of these two competitors — genuine "competition refuges" that they actively seek out.

Documented
Detail

Durant, S.M. (2000). Living with the enemy: avoidance of hyenas and lions by cheetahs in the Serengeti. Behavioral Ecology, 11(6), 624–632.

A study broadcasting recorded roars and hyena calls in the Serengeti found that cheetahs responded to the perceived presence of a competitor, not just a direct predator, by reducing their hunting activity. This avoidance behavior carries a real energetic cost, not even counting direct losses: 10 to 12% of kills made by a cheetah in the Serengeti are stolen before it can feed on them, mainly by hyenas.

In cubs, before leaving their mother

Direct predation is the leading cause of death for cheetah cubs on the Serengeti plains — more than two-thirds of deaths at the den — and lions are by far the main culprit.

Documented
Detail

Laurenson, M.K. (1994). High juvenile mortality in cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) and its consequences for maternal care. Journal of Zoology, 234(3), 387–408.

73.2% of cheetah cub deaths at the den on the Serengeti plains are attributed to predation, 78.2% of which is specifically due to lions. This is one of the highest juvenile mortality rates documented in a large cat, and it directly shapes cheetah maternal strategies (choice of den sites, frequency of moving cubs).

Over 32 years

Despite these very real individual costs, the Serengeti cheetah population remained stable while the lion population nearly tripled — unlike the African wild dog, which declined and then disappeared locally over the same period in the face of the same rise in lions.

Documented
Detail

Swanson, A., Caro, T., Davies-Mostert, H. et al. (2014). Cheetahs and wild dogs show contrasting patterns of suppression by lions. Journal of Animal Ecology, 83(6), 1418–1427.

This result runs counter to a common assumption in conservation science that high lion density automatically harms cheetah populations. Serengeti cheetahs mostly occupy areas of high lion density without this translating into a measurable population decline — a sign that individual-level costs (cubs killed, kills stolen) don't necessarily add up to a population-level effect, unlike what happens in another subordinate species in the same system.

Documentation

Last verified: August 14, 2026

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