12,000 Cheetahs

Today on the news I heard the anchor read that there are only 12,000 cheetahs left in the world. The figure begs the question, how many cheetahs are there supposed to be in the world?

I'm assuming that 12,000 is low, otherwise the anchor wouldn't have read the number. So should there be 13,000 cheetahs? Should there be a million? Should there be a billion cheetahs?

If you ask an antelope, 12,000 is 12,000 too many. If you ask a cheetah fanatic, than 12,000 is too few.

I would think that for an animal that lives in Africa and parts of Asia, 12,000 isn't all that bad. It's almost double the number viewers for most NBC shows.

Of course cheetahs are big cats that remind us of our domestic kitties. Therefore we want them around and we want them around in healthy numbers. But what about animals that don't conjure up such cuddly images?

If someone said there were 12,000 slugs in the world, gardeners would rejoice. If someone said there were 12,000 spiders left in the world, women would be dancing in the streets.

To be honest, I don't know, with any amount of certainty, if 12,000 cheetahs are too few, too many, or just right. The only thing I know is I'm going to question these arbitrary numbers until someone gives me a straight answer.