e360 digest
24 Feb 2009:
Rare Saharan Cheetah
Photographed by Camera Trap in Algeria
An international team of researchers has taken several photographs of the critically endangered Saharan cheetah, believed to number fewer than 250 individuals across its range in northern and western Africa. Using motion-sensitive camera traps that automatically take photographs of passing animals, researchers in Algeria identified four separate individuals in the photographs by their unique spot patterns. The photos were taken as part of the first systematic camera trap survey across the central Sahara, covering an area of 1,100 square-miles. Saharan cheetahs — a sub-species of cheetah found in isolated pockets of Algeria, Niger, Mali, Benin, Burkina-Faso, and Togo — are elusive animals protected by the Convention of Migratory Species. The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the conservation group Panthera are funding the research being carried out by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Algerian scientists and national park employees. “Virtually nothing is known about the population, so this new evidence, and the ongoing research, is hugely significant,” said Sarah Durant, senior researcher at the ZSL.
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