Northeast African cheetah

The Northeast African cheetah, also called the Sudan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii), is a cheetah subspecies of Northeast Africa. Contemporary records come from South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia, it is regionally extinct in Eritrea and Djibouti, and a 2024 estimate counted 533 individuals inside protected areas. The Austrian zoologist Leopold Fitzinger described it in 1855 as Cynailurus soemmeringii from a live male brought from Sudan to Vienna, and genetic work indicates it is closer to the Southern African cheetah than to Saharan populations. It is a large cat with a densely spotted ochraceous coat, the darkest fur of any cheetah subspecies, a distinctly white belly and a large head without moustache markings. It lives in open grasslands, semi-arid areas and the East Sudanian Savanna, preferring Soemmerring gazelles as prey. Poaching, the illegal wildlife trade, habitat loss and a shortage of prey threaten it.