Cheetah 'more vulnerable to extinction than previously thought'

Urgent action is needed to stop the world's fastest land animal becoming extinct, experts have warned

Urgent action is needed to stop the cheetah - the world's fastest land animal - becoming extinct, experts have warned.

Scientists estimate that only 7,100 of the fleet-footed cats remain in the wild, occupying 9% of the territory they once lived in. Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest, with fewer than 50 surviving in Iran, according to an investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).