WildAid is excited to work with our newest South African ambassador, award-winning singer-songwriter Shekhinah on a new campaign #GiveCheetahsSpace.
Africa’s most threatened big cat, cheetahs have lost 91% of their natural habitat and they have already disappeared from 25 countries.
Today there are only around 7,100 cheetahs remaining in the wild, and the population is declining.
Almost 75% of remaining cheetah habitats fall outside of protected areas, supporting two-thirds of the global population of the cats.
That makes them especially vulnerable to human-wildlife conflict, to overhunting of their prey to supply the bushmeat trade, and to the loss of wilderness areas to farmlands, settlements and roads.
Farmers often kill cheetahs, especially if the growing scarcity of their prey forces the cats to attack livestock. With climate change and population growth putting increasing pressure on the environment, cheetahs face unprecedented threats to their survival.
We need to act fast to protect cheetahs. Watch our new video, Give Cheetahs Space, with Shekhinah:
Shekhinah - Give cheetahs some space
But cheetahs also face significant threats from the illegal wildlife trade. They are poached for their skin and increasingly to be kept as pets, especially in the Middle East where they are seen as status symbols.
Shekhinah is a multi award winning Pop/R&B vocalist and songwriter from Durban, South Africa, and joined WildAid as a South African ambassador in 2021, adding her voice in support of the protection of wildlife.