Daniel Ole Sopia

CEO, Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association

“The cheetah is the world’s fastest land mammal. I like the cheetah because they make 100 per cent of their own kills and never scavenge from other predators. They’re harmless to people and very little cases of predation on livestock are known.

Unfortunately, their territories do overlap with other predators like lion, leopards and hyena, which therefore threatens their survival. They lose 80 per cent of their own kills to these other predators.

Human population pressure and a lack of land use policies has contributed significantly to habitat loss too, which also has affected their population. The increase in numbers of lions, hyenas and leopards also affects cheetah population.

They’re incredible and beautiful animals that we need to protect.”

Photo by Graeme Green