An estimated 7,000 wild cheetahs acinonyx jubatus remain on the african continent, occupying only 13 of their former range human wildlife conflicts, habitat loss and fragmentation, loss of prey due to…

An estimated 7,000 wild cheetahs acinonyx jubatus remain on the african continent, occupying only 13 of their former range human wildlife conflicts, habitat loss and fragmentation, loss of prey due to grazing competition, and the trade of skins and live animals are a direct threat to wild cheetah populations the iucn red list assessment states that illegal trade in live cheetahs is likely to have the greatest negative impact on wild populations between 2010 2019, more than 3,517 cases of seized or marketed live cheetah have been documented, primarily trafficked through the horn of africa and to the arabian peninsula where they are sold as pets despite the high number of reported live cheetah, IT is unknown where they come from this project seeks to confirm the presence of free living cheetah, as well as assess the status of prey species and competing predators, through systematic surveys that will assist with creating an updated cheetah range and habitat map in the horn of africa information obtained through the surveys will serve to prioritize activities in regions and or cheetah sub populations at greatest risk, which will guide planning and development of management and conservation strategies capacity building among wildlife departments and in country conservation teams is fundamental to developing cheetah management and conservation strategies to this effect, annual workshops will serve to engage participants in adaptive management processes and receive training for field data collection to support evidence based conservation participants will also be trained in wildlife monitoring and management and help develop national wildlife trafficking and poaching databases, while encouraging information exchange and international cooperation between law enforcement and wildlife officials to guide cheetah conservation strategies, including outreach and education materials, surveys will be conducted in selected areas to develop a situation analysis that will improve understanding of anthropogenic drivers, direct and indirect, of cheetah and other wildlife poaching for this purpose, the surveys will take place in rural communities, and will seek to gather knowledge of people S attitudes, motivations, and behaviors toward cheetah and other wildlife this will allow US to develop meaningful outreach activities for targeted audiences aimed to foster information sharing, increase awareness, develop solutions to human wildlife conflict, and reduce illegal trafficking in collaboration with jigjiga university ethiopia and hargeisa university somaliland , academic materials and programs on wildlife management and wildlife crime will be developed further promotion environmental awareness and a sustained interest in the conservation of natural resources will be achieved through collaboration with key non government organizations and civil society groups CO production and sharing of knowledge and information with our partners is a major goal at the annual workshops by sharing experiences, perspectives, and information, we will create a learning and sharing environment among participants we will also promote learning and knowledge sharing through higher education in partnership with university of hargeisa and jigjiga university, we will develop academic material and coursework related to wildlife management, conservation and law to validate our research and inform the scientific and conservation audiences of our results, project findings will be published in peer reviewed scientific journals and shared through community forums, social media outlets, professional conferences and meetings, and collaboration with the conservation communities