Carnivores: Aardwolf African Wild Cat African Wild Dog Banded Mongoose Bat Eared Fox Black-backed Jackal Brown Hyena Cape Clawless Otter Cape Fox Caracal Cheetah Civet Dhole Large Spotted Genet Golden Jackal Honey badger Jaguar Leopard African Lion Asiatic Lion Sand Cat Serval Side Striped Jackal Snow Leopard Spotted Hyena Striped Hyena Suricate (Meercat) Tiger White Tailed Mongoose Yellow Mongoose
The cheetah is the fastest land animal. It is adapted for speed in the following ways:
Cheetahs have solid spots, as opposed to the rosette markings seen on leopards. Every cheetah has a unique pattern of markings - similar to a human fingerprint. It is possible to identify cheetah based on their markings, although to the untrained observer this is not very easy. Because Cheetahs claws are not fully retractable, they get worn down slightly when walking and running, and as such they are not as sharp as most cats. the exception is the Dew claw which does not come in to contact with the ground when walking or running, and as such is very sharp. The following picture shows the underside of a Cheetah's paw with the pads clearly visible. On the left of the picture the sharp dew claw is visible, and the remaining claws which are blunt from wear are visible at the top of the picture.
Cheetahs can reach top speeds of between 100 and 120 km/hour. This has been accurately measured on a grey hound race track. Although Cheetah have incredible speed and acceleration, they are only able to maintain these speeds for short periods before they have to stop to rest and to cool down. When running at full speed, the Cheetah covers 7-8 meters in just one stride, and takes four strides per second. The Cheetah does not just have a high top speed - it also has incredible acceleration, and can accelerate from zero to 80km per hour (50 miles per hour) in just 3 seconds. The downside to the Cheetahs speed is that it is not as strong as other predators such as a Leopard as additional muscle mass would add to the Cheetahs weight and slow it down.
The diagram above illustrates a number of different positions the cheetah goes through in a single stride. The photographs below show a cheetah running at several different points within the stride. For part of the stride, the cheetah has no paws in contact with the ground - this can be seen both in the diagram above, and in two of the photographs below.
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The Cheetah does produce a wide range of sounds, although many are seldom heard. The Cheetah is the only one of the big cats to purr. The sound console below includes four sound samples of cheetahs. The sound playing console may take a short time to load, particularly if you have a slow internet connection. You will need the macromedia flash plugin to listen to these sounds.
Sound 1 is a Sub-adult cheetah.
Sound 2 is an adult male cheetah.
Sound 3 is mother calling for her cubs.
Sound 4 is a cheetah purring.
Cheetahs generally hunt small to medium size antelope. In Namibia, cheetahs have been
seen preying on dik-dik, steenbok, scrub hares, duiker, kudu, oryx and
hartebeest. There is a healthy prey population on Namibian farmlands to sustain
cheetahs and other large carnivores.
Cheetahs hunt by stalking their
prey and dashing out at the last minute. The Cheetahs excellent camouflage helps
it stalk its prey to allow it to get within range for the final high speed
chase. When the Cheetah catches up with its prey, it generally trips its prey,
then grabs it with their dew claws before grabbing it by the
throat and clamps the windpipe shut. The prey animal is starved of oxygen and
dies quickly. If the Cheetah does not catch its prey in a fairly
short distance, it will abandon the chase to conserve energy ready for its next
attempt.
As the cheetah is adapted for speed and is the fastest animal on earth many people assume that it is a plains (savannah) animal only. Many wildlife documentaries on cheetahs have been filmed in east Africa where animals are easy to observe on the vast plains and they are also more habituated. Cheetahs are actually found in different kinds of habitats and it is believed that less energy is expended by hunting in more wooded areas.
Cheetah spoor - front and back paws.
In practice the spoor is often less well defined than a picture like the above suggests. The photograph below illustrates this.
Photo © Tanya Trevor Saunders
Cheetahs are found throughout Namibia including the Namib desert in the extreme west. They are well adapted to the dry climate and it is believed that they are able to absorb adequate moisture from their prey allowing them to go without water if necessary.
Members of the Predator Conservation Trust were involved with a Cheetah and Lion reintroduction project at the Kalahari Game lodge in south east Namibia. Visit the Lion and Cheetah introduction project page for more details.
Cheetahs have a gestation period of approximately 95 days. They give birth to between 1 and 6 cubs, but 4 or 5 is more usual. The cubs are born with their eyes closed which open at around 7 to 10 days. Cubs are weaned at 3.5 months, but show an interest in meat from about 5 weeks old. They are completely dependent on their mother until the age of about 18 months when they become independent. Small cheetah cubs have a mantle of grey hair on their backs. They are defenceless and are often killed by larger carnivores like lions and spotted hyaenas. Cheetahs are sexually mature at around 2 years of age.
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Cheetahs are both solitary and live in groups. Groups consist of mothers and cubs, coalitions (males) and sub-adults just after independence. Sub-adult groups may consist of both females and males, but eventually split up when the individuals become sexually mature. Male coalitions are formed when male siblings remain together in a group. Occasionally, unrelated males form coalitions.
There is little genetic variation between individuals. This is believed to have occurred from a population "bottleneck" many thousands of years ago leaving only a handful of survivors. It does not appear that their lack of variation causes any problems in the wild.
The word cheetah is derived from the Hindu word "chita" which means "the spotted one." Cheetahs have been kept as pets for thousands of years. Egyptians and Mogul emperors used them for coursing. Cheetahs are depicted in many works of art including paintings, tapestries, urns and mosaics.
Around 200 facilities in the world hold around 1400 cheetahs in captivity. Many of them are involved
in captive breeding. Unfortunately captive animals have little chance of being
reintroduced into the wild, as lack of habitat is the main problem facing
free-ranging cheetahs. Many breeding facilities are still dependent on imports
from the wild population, which could possibly be detrimental to wild cheetahs.
Captive breeding has become very specialised and procedures like in
vitro fertilisation and artificial insemination have been successful in
assisting breeding. Unfortunately these procedures are expensive and these
resources would be more beneficial to cheetahs if they were ploughed back into
their conservation in the wild.
For many years, the figure quoted for Namibian cheetahs has been between 2500 and 3000 animals. With improved monitoring techniques, a range of between 1500 and 8000 cheetahs Namibia is probably more accurate. The number of cheetahs in the world is unknown. Cheetah densities vary according to prey availability. In Namibia, eastern Otjozondjupa and Omaheke regions are believed to have the highest cheetah densities.
Cheetah Distribution in
Namibia
Cheetah occur in about 27 countries in Africa. This is mainly sub-Saharan Africa, but some occur as far north as Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania. There is an isolated population of Asian cheetah occurring in Iran, but they number less than 50 animals.
Cheetah Distribution in Africa
Cheetah Conservation Botswana have produced a report into the status of the Cheetah in Botswana. Click here to read the Botswana Cheetah status report (produced in January 2007)
Cheetahs are listed on Appendix 1, but Namibia have a quota of 150 cheetahs which may be utilised through live export or sport hunting. The Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) has reduced this quota to 100 that can be live exported or trophy hunted. This is strictly controlled through a permit system.
© Predator Conservation Trust.
