cheetahs - subspecies
For a short time it was thought that there were six subspecies of cheetah, but Acinonyx rex - the king cheetah - was abandoned after it was discovered the variation was only a recessive gene. The subspecies Acinonyx jubatus guttatus - the woolly cheetah - may also have been a variation due to a recessive gene. Other populations have been elevated to subspecies level, and there are again six subspecies recognized:
- Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus): northern Africa (Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia and Western Sahara) and Asia (Afghanistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Russia)
- Northwest African Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki): western Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal)
- Acinonyx jubatus raineyii: eastern Africa (Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda)
- Acinonyx jubatus jubatus: southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia)
- Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii: central Africa (Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Niger, and Sudan)
- Acinonyx jubatus velox