Cheetahs — are they really worth saving? for their stunning beauty...or is there more

I went to the serengeti in tanzania, africa to find out

by scott w poindexter  |  boldlyexplore.com  |  adventurer - storyteller - traveler

beautiful cheetah surveying the savanna plains of northwest tanzania from a rocky kopje

Mid-morning in the serengeti. The golden light is already warm and full, the plains stretching endlessly in every direction. and then — movement. A cheetah climbs to the top of a large rock, settles, and begins to scan the horizon. unhurried. Completely at home. black streaks down their face and copper-colored eyes reading the landscape with a precision that evolution has spent millions of years perfecting

The lens comes up my breath slows in that fraction of a second before the shutter fires, the weight of this moment lands — not just the extraordinary beauty of this animal, but the stark reality of what it represents.

One of fewer than 7,100 cheetahs left on earth.

​A species disappearing so quietly that most of the world hasn’t noticed yet.
Leaving a career as a doctor to encounter the world, witness it, share it — to inspire people to get involved, to make a difference for the natural world, whatever way is your way to do it. I know first first-hand a single image, a single moment of genuine connection with the wild, can change what someone chooses to do with their experience.

That moment in the serengeti — and thousands like it witnessed across east africa — is one of the reasons why this article exists....once you have experienced it you can't stop thinking about it. 

eye to eye with a cheetah in northwest tanzania, this is a moment that changes everything

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It's more than beauty

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“The cheetah is not just a beautiful animal. It's a keystone species. Remove it, and the ecosystem it helps hold in balance begins to unravel — quietly at first, then catastrophically.”

According to the WWF: “the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is considered a keystone species and a vital apex predator in savanna ecosystems. By hunting small-to-medium-sized herbivores, they regulate prey populations, preventing overgrazing and maintaining habitat health. Their kills also provide essential food for scavengers, supporting a biodiverse ecosystem.”

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We have seen what happens when an apex predator disappeares from a healthy wild ecosystem

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Yellowstone national park, usa, wolves were hunted to local extinction in the early twentieth century. Without them, elk populations exploded — overgrazing rivers and streams, destroying willows, wiping out beavers. Beavers are a keystone species themselves: their dams create wetlands that support dozens of other species. The entire ecosystem unraveled.

When wolves were reintroduced in 1995, the rivers literally changed course. vegetation recovered. beavers returned. The loss of one predator had hollowed out a landscape and its return rebuilt one.

The cheetah is not a wolf. The serengeti is not yellowstone, but the principle is universal. For the communities living alongside these animals in northern tanzania — in the serengeti and the enduimet wildlife management area — the disappearance of the cheetah is not a distant ecological concern. It's a direct threat to their grasslands, their livestock, their water sources, and the tourism economy that sustains their families.

​When a keystone predator is lost, the land itself begins to fail the people who depend on it.

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A species in freefall - yet we must have hope, must press on and you can be a part of it 

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Cheetahs have already vanished from over 90 percent of its historic range — gone from 26 countries where it once thrived.

​In the serengeti, one of only two places on earth where a population of over 1,000 individuals still exists, the threats are relentless. Habitat loss compresses cheetahs into smaller areas, forcing deadly conflict with livestock. cheetahs lose up to 50 percent of their prey to lions, leopards, and hyenas — animals they cannot fight.

The serengeti cheetah project, the world’s longest-running study of wild cheetahs operating since 1975, confirms the population is producing just barely enough young to survive. there is almost no margin for additional pressure.

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Conservation through a lens 

4 male cheetahs crossing from tanzania into kenya - enduimet wildlife management area, tanzania

One day inside the enduimet wildlife management area along the tanzania kenya border out of nowhere 4 cheetahs emerged far way. I took a large collection of photographs —and donated to amboseli national park in kenya, at the foot of mount kilimanjaro. A vital node in the cross-border corridor connecting tanzania and kenya’s wild places. They use these to keep track of individual cheetahs, each cheetah has it's own unique pattern like a finger print

Images have power. A single frame — a cheetah atop a sun-warmed rock, scanning the plain with absolute authority — can reach a person in a way that statistics never can. It creates an emotional connection that crosses language barriers, cultural divides, and continental distances. that connection is the seed of action.

“a single frame can reach someone in a way that statistics never can.
​that connection is the seed of action.”

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How can you make a difference right now

i love this photo - cheetah being a cat - curiousity is one of their enduring qualities 

You don’t need to be in africa to make a difference. anti-poaching patrols, community livestock programs, and decades of scientific research are all funded by people from exactly where you are sitting right now.

• Cheetah Conservation Fund (cheetah.org) — the world’s leading cheetah conservation organization.
• Zoological Society of London (ZSL) — runs the Serengeti Cheetah Project across the cheetah’s entire range.
• Action for Cheetahs in Kenya (actionforcheetahs.org) — East African cheetah and human-wildlife coexistence.
• African People & Wildlife (africanpeoplewildlife.org) — community-based conservation across northern Tanzania.

* also share this article. make a donation. plan a responsible safari. share with someone what you learned today.

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The image that never leaves

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There is one image that stays. not one that appears in this article — one carried in memory. a young cheetah female, barely past adolescence, sitting alone on a large rock overlooking the serengeti plains. Always scanning. always calculating. the wind, the light, the grass, the horizon.

She turned and looked directly at the camera. not through it, not past it, at it, there was something in that gaze — ancient, alert, completely unbothered by the enormity of what this species faces.

​She did not know that fewer than 7,100 of her kind remain. she did not know that three generations from now, if we do nothing, her descendants may not exist. She knew only the wind, the light, the grass, and the horizon.

we are the ones who know and that knowledge is not a burden --
it is a gift, it is the reason for this work — every hour in the field,
every frame, every story shared decide to act, right now, today.
the cheetah cannot advocate for itself
​​but we can.

“we are the last generation with a real chance...let that be
​the reason we act, not the reason we give up.”

about the author

scott w poindexter is a wildlife conservation photographer, photojournalist, adventurer, traveler and storyteller. leaving a career as a doctor to encounter the world, scott now shares stories through boldlyexplore.com to inspire deeper connection with the natural world — from kenya’s grevy’s zebra trust to the serengeti’s great plains. walking across america for wildlife crossings to his cheetah photography has been donated to amboseli national park, kenya. follow his work on instagram and linkedin.

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