Males are slightly larger than females. Cheetahs are sometimes confused with leopards—a much heavier animal with rosette-shaped spots and no tear marks. Cheetahs inhabit a broad section of Africa including areas of North Africa, the Sahel, eastern and southern Africa. Over the past 50 years, cheetahs have become extinct in at least 13 countries, and they are most prevalent in Kenya and Tanzania in east Africa, and Namibia and Botswana in southern Africa.
The Asiatic cheetah is known to survive in Iran, but is critically endangered. Cheetahs thrive in areas with vast expanses of land where prey is abundant. In Namibia, cheetahs live in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, savannahs, dense vegetation and mountainous terrain.
As human development expands in to their preferred habitat, cheetahs can now commonly be found on commercial farms. Cheetahs do not roar, but they make sounds including purrs, barks, growls, hisses and chirps that are unlike those of any other cat.
The most common vocalization is the chirp. Another common vocalization is what has been termed the "eeaow. Another common vocalization is the stutter, which appears to be a direct solicitation. Females stutter toward cubs when they either want them to stay put or to follow her. Cheetahs are carnivorous and eat a variety of small animals. While most cats are nocturnal predators, cheetahs are primarily diurnal, hunting in the early morning and late afternoon.
Since they depend on sight more heavily than smell, they like to scan the countryside from a kopje, or the top of a termite mound. Cheetahs usually creep within yards Full sprints last about 20 seconds. Cheetahs eat small antelope including springbok, steenbok, duikers, impala and gazelles, as well as the young of larger animals including warthog, kudu, hartebeest, oryx, roan and sable. They also eat game birds and rabbits. About half a cheetah's prey chases are successful.
If successful in catching an animal, cheetahs suffocate their prey by clamping down on the animal's windpipe. The jaw structure of a cheetah can create a vise-like grip. Very small animals, like hares, are killed by a simple bite through the skull. But whatever the meal, large or small, cheetahs eat quickly, as they can be bullied away from their catch by lions, hyenas, and sometimes groups of vultures.
Cheetahs lose about 50 percent of their food this way. Cheetahs have unusually clean eating habits: they do not return to their kill nor do they eat carrion. They leave the bones and entrails of their prey. At six weeks, the young are strong enough to follow the hunt and when they are about six months old the mother will capture live prey for them to practice killing. Cheetahs at the Zoo are fed 3. Frozen rabbits and beef femurs are sometimes given for enrichment.
Cheetahs have a unique social order among felids. Adult females are solitary, while adult males are not. Adult females interact with adult males only long enough to breed, and females raise their cubs on their own. At 18 months, the mother leaves the cubs, who then form a sibling group that stays together for another six months. At about two years, the female siblings leave the group and become solitary, while the young males remain together for life in a group called a coalition.
A coalition is usually made up of two to three littermates and is a very tightly bonded group. Singleton males are not common and usually do not survive long. This coalition will live and hunt together for life claiming a territory, which may encompass several female home ranges. Around the age of two, when males reach sexual maturity, they seek out an area far away from their parent, sometimes as far as miles kilometers.
The size of male territories is usually five to 10 square miles 13 to 26 square kilometers although it may extend up to 50 square miles square kilometers.
Coalitions will claim a territory in an environment that is likely to attract herds of gazelles, for instance, one near water. Young females, however, usually occupy the same range as their mother, although all females are solitary except when they have a litter. Female home ranges can be from to square miles to square kilometers and follow migratory gazelle herds.
Wild cheetahs are thought to be able to reach speeds of nearly 70 miles an hour —although they can only sustain that speed for about 30 seconds. These cats are nimble at high speeds, able to make quick and sudden turns in pursuit of prey. The International Union for Conservation of Nature currently lists the cheetah as vulnerable to extinction.
However, in recent years, scientists have argued that cheetahs should be considered endangered instead, pointing to sizable losses in cheetah populations. There are fewer than 7, adult cheetahs remaining in the wild. Cheetahs are famous for their tawny coats covered in black spots, each arranged in a unique pattern to help the animals identify one another. Bold black stripes streak like tears from the inner corners of their eyes down to both sides of their mouths, and the ends of their bushy tails are encircled by black rings.
As the only big cat with a semi-retractable claw —rather than the fully retractable claws that help lions tear flesh and climb trees—cheetahs are the sole member of the genus Acinonyx. Although they typically prefer open grasslands, cheetahs live in a range of habitats across eastern and southern Africa. One subspecies, the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah, can only be found in Iran , and only a few hundred are believed to be left.
Cheetahs in desert regions are sometimes smaller with paler coats, while some cheetahs in southern Africa have a genetic mutation that gives them larger spots and even stripes. There have also been rare sightings of spotless cheetahs in Kenya. Cheetahs also have large nasal cavities that help them gulp in oxygen, while the shape of their inner ears allows them to maintain balance and keep their heads still as they run.
Explore the mesmerizing physics of animal locomotion. Before unleashing their speed, cheetahs use their exceptionally keen eyesight to scan the grassland for signs of prey— especially antelopes and warthogs , although cheetahs also prey on smaller animals such as hares and birds. The cheetah is a daylight hunter that benefits from stealthy movement and a spotted coat that allows it to blend easily into high, dry grasses. Cheetahs begin a hunt by stalking their prey.
When the moment is right, a cheetah will sprint after its quarry and attempt to knock it down. Such chases cost the hunter a tremendous amount of energy and are usually over in less than a minute. If successful, the cheetah begins eating its kill quickly to prevent opportunistic animals like lions and hyenas from getting in the way. Cheetahs rarely scavenge for food and stay hydrated by drinking the blood or urine of their prey. Female cheetahs live on their own, each with a large home range.
Females in areas such as the Serengeti, where the prey is migratory, typically follow the herds. Meanwhile, males are either solitary or form small coalitions with one or two other males, typically their littermates.
Some males establish small territories in areas where they are likely to find mates. Both male and female cheetahs mate with several partners, and studies show that cubs of the same litter can have different fathers.
Population research has shown that when habitat is destroyed and populations become fragmented and isolated, the rate of inbreeding increases and the genetic diversity lowers. Physiological impairments such as: poor sperm quality, focal palatine erosion, susceptibility to infectious diseases, and kinked tails are a result of low genetic diversity within both the wild and captive cheetah population.
Cheetahs are visual hunters. Unlike other big cats cheetahs are diurnal, meaning they hunt in early morning and late afternoon. The hunt has several components. It includes prey detection, stalking, the chase, tripping or prey capture , and killing by means of a suffocation bite to the throat. The prey species on which the cheetah depends have evolved speed and avoidance techniques that can keep them just out of reach.
Cheetahs will also prey on the calves of larger herd animals. Cheetahs generally prefer to prey upon wild species and avoid hunting domestic livestock. The exception happening in sick, injured and either old or young and inexperienced cheetahs. Keeping livestock in kraals and utilizing non-lethal means of protection can dramatically reduce livestock predation. While cheetahs can reach remarkable speeds, they cannot sustain a high speed chase for very long.
They must catch their prey in 30 seconds or less as they cannot maintain maximum speeds for much longer. Cheetahs spend most of their time sleeping and they are minimally active during the hottest portions of the day.
They prefer shady spots and will sleep under the protection of large shady trees. Cheetahs do not hunt at night, they are most active during the morning and evening hours. The cheetah serves a special role in its ecosystem. Cheetahs are one of the most successful hunters on the savanna but their kills are very often stolen by larger carnivores or predators that hunt in groups. Predators play an important role in any ecosystem.
They keep prey species healthy by killing the weak and old individuals. They also act as a population check which helps plants-life by preventing overgrazing.
Without predators like the cheetah, the savanna ecosystem in Namibia would be very different and the current ecological trend toward desertification would be accelerated. They growl when facing danger, and they vocalize with sounds more equivalent to a high-pitched chirp or bubble and they bark when communicating with each other. The cheetah can also purr while both inhaling and exhaling. Only a handful of individuals remained.
The population of cheetahs rebounded. Once found throughout Asia and Africa, today there are fewer than 7, adult and adolescent cheetahs in the wild. In Namibia, they are a protected species. Most wild cheetahs exist in fragmented populations in pockets of Africa, occupying a mere 9 percent of their historic range. In Iran, fewer than 50 Asiatic cheetahs a sub-species remain. The largest single population of cheetahs occupies a six-country polygon that spans Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Mozambique and Zambia.
In captivity cheetahs can live from 17 — 20 years. In countries across Africa, like Namibia, it is illegal to capture and take live cheetahs from the wild. Also in the majority of African countries, like Namibia, it is illegal to keep cheetahs under private ownership or as pets. Cheetah Conservation Fund and other Africa-based NGOs keep populations of injured or orphaned animals in captivity as part of rehabilitation and rewilding efforts.
Very young and extremely ill animals will have greater degrees of contact with human caretakers. Survival in the wild depends on an aversion to humans and avoidance of human populations. Cheetahs that require hand-rearing and prolonged medical treatment do not possess an adequate fear of humans for life in the wild, especially when their territories are increasingly likely to be shared by human settlements. Accredited zoos around the world participate in captive breeding programs that track the genetic suitability for mating pairs.
Accreditation criteria differs between accrediting organizations. Accreditation in most cases requires that zoos holding captive cheetahs must support conservation work. Cheetah Conservation Fund lists the zoos that fund our conservation work here. Cheetah Conservation Fund manages the International Cheetah Studbook for captive cheetah populations. As with all other species fighting extinction, the problem facing the cheetah is complex and multifaceted.
Unlike other large cats and pack predators, cheetahs do not do well in wildlife reserves. These areas normally contain high densities of other larger predators like the lion, leopard, and hyena. Predators such as these, compete with cheetahs for prey and will even kill cheetahs given the opportunity. Farmers act quickly to protect their resources, often trapping or shooting the cheetah. Because cheetahs hunt more during the day, they are seen more often than the nocturnal predators which contributes to a higher rate of persecution on the cheetah.
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