Cheetahs have a hard life on the Serengeti plains. Less than 5% of cubs will survive into adolescence and a previous study puts predation by lions as one of the biggest threats to cheetah cubs. A new study on cheetah cubs in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park suggests that the low survival rates of the Serengeti may not be the norm of cubs and lions may not be the big threat that they are currently considered to be.
The high levels of predation by lions of cheetah cubs in the Serengeti makes some conservationists believe that the two big cats would have difficulty surviving together within conservation areas. The Serengeti study followed 125 cheetah cubs from den to adolescence and only 4.8% survived. This low-level of survival has been considered in conservation policies and strategy with some concluding that the two can not successfully co-exist in defined protected areas.
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