Human activity, as opposed to larger predators, is largely to blame for quickly declining numbers of cheetahs, according to a new study. The study, led by Queen’s University Belfast, examines how human activity affects the way in which cheetahs burn energy. Study results indicate that human activity may lead the animals to expend more energy, ultimately becoming a major cause of their plummeting numbers.

The number of wild cheetahs has fallen to under 10,000 from 100,000 a century ago with conventional wisdom placing the blame on larger predators for monopolizing available food while their habitat becomes restricted. The common belief has been that cheetahs do not have sufficient access to prey to keep up with their enormous energy demands when taking part in super-fast chases.

The study, the first of its kind, was published on October 2, 2014 in the international journal Science. In the study, academics from Queen’s and other Universities and conservation institutions have made a surprising discovery that cheetahs do not use much more energy than other mammals of a similar size.

The scientists also found that when searching for prey, cheetahs experience more energy loss than in running outbursts, which are spectacular yet infrequent. With the lions’ prey having been reduced or re-distributed through human impacts, their ability to balance their energy budgets has been severely limited.

Lead researcher Dr. Michael Scantlebury from Queen’s School of Biological Sciences said in a statement, “We studied 19 free-roaming cheetahs each for two weeks across two sites in southern Africa, one in the Kalahari desert and the other in a wetter area. We injected heavy water into the animals before tracking them continuously and collecting their faeces. From these samples, we could determine how much of this heavy water they were losing each day and calculate their energy expenditures.”

According to Defenders of Wildlife, although cheetahs were once found throughout Africa and Asia from South Africa to India, they are now confined to portions of eastern, central and southwestern Africa and a small portion of Iran.