The King Cheetah That cheetahs exist anywhere is a miracle in itself. About ten to twelve thousand years ago, the species went through a genetic "bottleneck" when, for some unknown reason, at least 99 percent of the entire world population of cheetahs died in a very short time period. Some scientists have even suggested that the population might have gotten as low as one pregnant female. in Public bookmarkswith bottleneckcheetahclonesgenetickingpopulation