The cheetah is the world’s fastest land animal. Over short distances, it can sprint up to 70 miles per hour. Built for speed, it has long, slim, muscular legs, a small, rounded head set on a long neck, a flexible spine, a deep chest, special pads on its feet for traction and a long tail for balance. It is also the only cat that cannot retract its claws, an adaptation to help maintain traction like a soccer player’s cleats. Distinctive black "tear tracks" running from the inside corner of each eye to the mouth may serve as an antiglare mechanism for daytime hunting.
^ Back to top
Cheetahs are found in open and partially open savannas.
^ Back to top
The cheetah is basically a solitary animal. At times, a male will accompany a female for a short while after mating, but most often the female is alone or with her cubs. Cheetah mothers spend a long time teaching their young how to hunt. Small live antelopes are brought back to the cubs so they can learn to chase and catch them.
Cheetahs do not roar like lions, but they purr, hiss, whine and growl. They also make a variety of contact calls; the most common is a birdlike chirping sound.
^ Back to top
Cheetahs usually prey on small antelopes such as Thomson's gazelles and impalas, but also hunt small mammals and birds. The cheetah gets as close to the prey as possible, then in a burst of speed it tries to outrun its quarry. Once the cheetah closes in, it knocks the prey to the ground with its paw and suffocates the animal with a bite to the neck. Once a cheetah has made a kill, it eats quickly and keeps an eye out for scavengers—lions, leopards, hyenas, vultures and jackals will steal from this timid predator. Unlike most other cats, the cheetah usually hunts during daylight, preferring early morning or early evening.
^ Back to top
A shy creature that roams widely, the cheetah is not seen as easily as some other cats. Never numerous, cheetahs have become extinct in many areas, principally due to shrinking habitat, loss of species to prey upon, disease and a high rate of cub mortality. In some areas 50 to 75% of cheetah cubs die before 3 months, as they are highly susceptible to disease at this age.
Did You Know?
- The name cheetah comes from an Indian word meaning "spotted one."
- The young cub has a long gray-blue coat and a black underbelly that rapidly lightens and becomes spotted.
- Early peoples trained cheetahs for hunting, and many civilizations depicted them in their art and in written records.
- Cheetahs were so popular that Akbar the Great of India was said to have kept a stable of about 1,000.
^ Back to top
Back to Wildlife Gallery
