Like other top order predators, cheetahs occur at low densities and require huge home ranges, anywhere between several hundred to more than 3,000 square kilometres, so they are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation<\/a> resulting in small, physically isolated populations.<\/p>\n Cheetah conservation has become acute in East Africa. Research has shown that only around 300 cheetahs remain in this whole region. Illegal trafficking for the pet trade<\/a> is a particular problem. In Ethiopia and Somalia, two countries neighbouring Djibouti, the poaching of cheetah cubs for smuggling into the Arabian Peninsula is a major concern.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Researcher Dr Mark Chynoweth, who headed the search for mammals during a biodiversity survey in Djibouti, in the rugged and remote Digri Plateau. Picture: Evan Buechley, accessed through GroundUp<\/em><\/p>\n In 2021, the World Bank contracted American ornithologist and vulture expert Dr Evan Buechley to undertake a biodiversity survey in Djibouti ahead of a development project<\/a>. A University of Utah postgraduate researcher, then on the staff of US-based conservation group\u00a0HawkWatch International<\/a>, he\u00a0assembled a team<\/a>\u00a0of eight, later led by his HawkWatch colleague, Dr Megan Murgatroyd.<\/p>\n Cape Town-based Murgatroyd is also a research associate at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology<\/a> at the University of Cape Town, and started her research career studying Verreaux\u2019s eagles in the Cederberg region.<\/p>\n She explained that their Djibouti objective was to do a broad-scale biodiversity<\/a> study across the country, looking at mammals, birds and plants. \u201cIt was very exploratory because so little work has been done there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Buechley said the team\u2019s work had been \u201creally the first large biodiversity<\/a> assessment ever done in Djibouti\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been site-specific or species-specific studies, but we were doing a biodiversity<\/a> assessment in a transect that ran across the entire country. We didn\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d he was quoted saying in a recent\u00a0research article<\/a>\u00a0for the University of Utah,\u00a0Are cheetahs making a comeback in East Africa?<\/em><\/p>\n The mammal team used camera traps to record the presence of large mammals during two trapping surveys: 48 camera traps for 42 days during the autumn of 2021, and then 41 cameras during the spring of 2022 over 25 days.<\/p>\n While recording a cheetah was always an outside possibility, it really wasn\u2019t expected.<\/p>\n Houssein Rayaleh, a member of the research team representing Association Djibouti Nature and the Djibouti Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development<\/a>, explained that although cheetahs were presumed to possibly still exist in the country, there had been no confirmed sightings in Djibouti for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n The cameras were set at carefully selected sites to shoot bursts of three frames when triggered by a passing animal. Although 27 of the cameras malfunctioned or were broken or stolen, the team was able to process images from more than 1,300 trap nights in total.<\/p>\n The camera traps picked up caracal, spotted hyena, and three potential cheetah prey species: dorcas gazelle (a small, common antelope), gerenuk (a long-necked medium-size antelope also known as the giraffe gazelle), and Salt\u2019s dik-dik (another small antelope).<\/p>\n Then came the exciting find. At 1:59am on 30 March last year<\/a>, a camera on the rugged and remote Digri Plateau in the south-east of the country recorded six images of a cheetah of unknown gender.<\/p>\n Murgatroyd cautioned that further research was necessary to assess the possibility of cheetah population(s) in Djibouti.<\/p>\n \u201cThis could simply be a vagrant individual, or it could indicate that there is an important remnant cheetah population in the country,\u201d she said. \u201cGiven the country\u2019s rapid development and high biodiversity<\/a>, we hope further research will be conducted to assess whether this is indeed an important habitat for this quickly declining species.\u201d<\/p>\n Buechley was also wary of drawing hard conclusions.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re [cheetahs] not doing good \u2013 they\u2019re diminishing, their range is contracting, and you see an individual well outside, well north, of its known range,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat said, cheetahs roam very widely. This could just be a lone individual that was on 1,000-kilometre trek across the Horn of Africa, never to be seen in Djibouti again. So there\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A cheetah in full flight in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Picture: John Yeld, accessed through GroundUp<\/em><\/p>\n But the mammal team led by Dr Mark Chynoweth, also of Utah State University, had found the Digri Plateau area to have the highest mammalian species richness in the study area. \u201cThis may indicate that there is sufficient prey available to support a cheetah population,\u201d Chynoweth suggested.<\/p>\nbiodiversity survey in Djibouti, in the rugged and remote Digri Plateau. Picture: Evan Buechley, accessed through GroundUp” \/><\/div>\n
\nLocation maps showing Djibouti and the remote Digri Plateau where the cheetah was photographed. Illustration: Hawkwatch International<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n