CHEETAH



How to Recognize
Cheetahs are the world’s fastest land mammal, reaching speeds of 70 mph with 164-foot long bounds! But they are exhausted after a few hundred yards so it has to stalk its prey to within 65 yards before unleashing its tremendous acceleration.

When running after prey, it shadows its moves and tries to trip it up or knock it off balance. Once a prey is caught, it’s suffocated with a bite to the throat. It’s then dragged to cover and wolfed down to avoid losing it to lions, hyenas, and even vultures.

Cheetahs have small heads, square snouts, long tails that are ringed at the tip, and dark “tear marks” running from their eyes to their jaws. They are fawn or cream in color with evenly spaced spots. They don't have retractable claws which adds traction during sprints.

Habitat
Cheetahs can be found in the savannah, grassland, and semiarid plains that have patchy cover and are in the vicinity of plains grazers.

Behavior
Diurnal. Two to three males may form a coalition to defend a territory. Females are solitary for life except for temporary nuclear family groups. Males and females only socialize during estrus. They use termite mounds, hoods of vehicles, and leaning trees as observation posts.

Breeding
Litters can be as large as nine but in open savannah habitats, most cubs are killed by predators. The gestation period is three months. Cubs feed from their mother’s kills after five to six weeks and can catch prey at nine to twelve months. The young disperse from their mother at around eighteen months to two years.

A mother will go without food to ensure her cubs eat. Cubs must be taught how to stalk and catch prey. Their mother will bring them dazed and half-dead young animals and teach them to hunt. (How cool is that?!)

Feeding
Cheetahs prey on antelopes up to 130 pounds as well as hares and young wildebeest and zebras. They like gazelles, impalas, oribis, warthogs, duikers, and calves of larger antelopes. Groups many take zebras, wildebeests, and young buffaloes.

They hunt shortly after dawn, resting in the long grass during the heat of the day, and resume the hunt in the late afternoon. Since cheetahs are often surrounded by safari vehicles, this sometimes forces them to hunt during the heat of the day.

Enemies
Groups of lions, dogs, and hyenas may kill an adult cheetah.


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Copyright © 2002, Dawn M. Dalton.
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