The cheetah suffocates its captive, closing its jaw about the animals windpipe and squeezing until its dead. At 6 weeks the young are strong enough to participate with the hunt. Cheetahs are often persecuted by other predators, who steal their food, eat their cubs, and even attack the adults. For these reasons, cheetahs life span in the wild is about 4 to 5 years, but they have been to known to live up to 15 years in zoos. The cheetah is considered the most endangered big cat today.
Human excess is probably the major factor pushing the cheetah toward extinction.
Too many people squeeze out other species, robbing them of living space and limiting their food supply. Other contributing factors to their extinction include illegal hunting and low genetic variability . Some scientists believe that the cheetah population was nearly destroyed 10,000 years ago by a catastrophic event such as a disease or natural disaster that left only 1,000 or so surviving . In 1900 there were approximately 100,000 cheetah worldwide. Namibia has the largest population of cheetah - about 2500.