By the mid-1970s, their population had halved. How far they've dropped since then is anybody's guess. The Sumerians, way back in 3,000 BC, were the first to use cheetahs as hunting companions. Since then, the pharaohs of Egypt, the kings of France, the princes of Persia, the Mongol emperors of India and the emperors of Austria have continued this tradition. When Marco Polo visited Kublai Khan at his summer residence in the Himalayan Mountains 700 years ago, he found that the mighty Khan kept 1,000 cheetahs to hunt deer and other slower animals.
Cheetahs are very inbred.
They are so inbred, that genetically they are almost identical. If a species does not have much genetic diversity, it will not be able to adapt well to changes in their environment - such a climate change, or new bacteria or viruses. But if they do have a lot of genetic difference from one individual to the next, at least a few of them will be able to survive the changing times. We think they are inbred because of tests involving enzymes, skin grafts and skull shape. The enzyme tests probably give the strongest evidence for inbreeding.