Cheetahs, the fastest land mammals and demands one of the highest caloric intake of all species, are adversely impacted by humans, who are responsible for cutting down their hunting radius and prey ratios, a new study published by an international group of scientists from Europe, South Africa, and North Carolina State University.

The cheetah population has decline 90 percent over the past century; as numbers dropped below 10,000, most scientists concluded that for some reason cheetahs were unable to meet their daily caloric intake to sustain their incredibly fast paced hunting style– most likely due to lions and hyenas would steal prey from cheetahs.

Scientists injected cheetahs in two South African reserves with “heavy water,” water laced with isotopes, attached radio collars, and tracked the animals’ movements. Scientists found that the theft rate cheetahs experience is much lower than previously thought, and the daily energy expenditures of cheetahs mirrored other similar species, but positively increased correlated with travelling time.

“It seems that the cheetah is able to cope with larger predators and the occasional loss of food without too much difficulty,” says Mike Scantlebury, biologist at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and lead author of the paper describing the research. “For prey theft to be a factor, cheetahs would have to have their meal stolen over 50 percent of the time, which is not the case with the animals we studied.”

The revelation means that therefore cheetahs must have to travel further distances to track down prey due to human interference. Human over-hunting antelope, hares, and other game, couple with creating greater obstacles for cheetahs to avoid, like fences and settlements, makes cheetahs daily commutes unbearable for the species.

“We too often blame lions and hyenas for decimating cheetah populations when in fact it is likely to be us who drive their declines,” said Johnny Wilson, who worked on the project as a PhD candidate at NC State. “Anything that we do to make them move farther to find prey – like depleting their prey stocks or erecting fences or barriers – makes life a lot harder for a cheetah.”

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