The Fastest Land Animal in the World
They can sprint more than the length of a fire truck. They can see from five km away. The cheetahs are amazing animals. They are machines that we have not fully discovered and this paper will explain some amazing facts about them.
In the following few pages it will describe where they live, their size, the way they hunt, their amazing vision, the problems of keeps it as a pet, and their pregnancy. The cheetah mainly live on open grassland or desert lands. Their habitat is found in the Middle East and parts of Africa (kids.nationalgeographic). Acinonyx jubatus is the scientific name for the cheetah.
In the Latin language, acinonyx means non-moving claws while jubatus means maned (Catsg). The average lifespan of the cheetah is between ten and twelve years. The cheetah’s length may vary between three and a half feet to four and a half feet. The tail is nearly as long as the full cheetah’s body with a length of twenty-five and a half to thirty-one and half inches. (National Geographic).
While moving at high speed the cheetah, needs something to balance it. So its tail is like a boat’s airfoil which makes it very easy for the cheetah to take sharp turns (Marlandzoo). There are thirty-six different species of cheetahs. It is the fastest land animal, but for only very short distances of between 300 to 400 meters. At maximum speed, the cheetah can sprint seven to eight meters each time it runs. Their top speed is about 110 km/h (Catsg).
The cheetah’s small size and tall legged body make it an awesome, fast hunting machine. The cheetah’s colors are light brown with black dots all over its body. They can be quickly identified by their “tear stripes” that span from the beginning of their eyes (Defenders). The cheetah eats many things including gazelles, hoofed animals, birds, impalas and many other animals (ConservationInstitute). As a form of adaptation for the dry places, the cheetahs only drink once each three to four days (ScienceKids).
The cheetah has an ability to play with their vocal cords and they can make the same call as a bird. After hearing the sound, dives directly down to the sound, then the cheetah gets its prey (BigCatRescue). There are only a handful of animals that can eat the cheetah and that is because the cheetah is almost on top of the food chain. These animals are lions, leopards, and adult hyenas (Pictures of Cats). The cheetah hunts in a five-step method that is always efficient for hunting (AllAboutCheetahs).
They start by spending the morning looking for the prey. Then the cheetah will come from the opposite side as the wind because if the prey smells them, they will run. After that, the cheetah slowly moves behind tall stemmed plants. When they crouch to the tall plants they take the correct position for running. When the cheetah is near enough to the prey, they sprint up to seventy-one mph (AllAboutCheetahs).
Unlike other animals, the cheetah gets very close to their prey. As close as seventy to one hundred meters. Then within only twenty seconds, The cheetah finishes its hunting. The longest chase can exceed a little bit above one minute (SeaWorld). When the cheetah catches the prey at a speed of 100 kph, it is hard for them to stop.
So to stop the cheetah has two-edged pad at the end of their front legs. The cheetah slams it into the earth to stop (Lions). The cheetahs hate to get into a fight with other big animals like lions, bigger cheetahs or even the hyenas. To avoid the fight, the cheetah has an awesome strategy which is to hunt at night so no one can see it (MarylandZoo). The cheetah has an amazing vision up to five km, but it has poor night vision.
Cheetahs cannot climb trees, so they need to finish eating their prey before other bigger animals come and steal the prey from them (ScienceKids). When the male is about one year old and the female is about two years old, and where there is plenty of food, then the cheetahs can mate. They can mate any time during the year (FelineWorlds). When the cubs are born, they will be between 150 to 350 grams in the wild, which is the same weight as three averages bars of soap (ielc.libguides).
The mother cheetah will carry the babies in her body for ninety to 100 days. She can give birth to a minimum of one cub and a maximum of nine cubs. Ninety percent of the young will die in the first few weeks (FelineWorlds). Out of the 90 percent of the dead cubs, fifty percent of the cubs will be killed by other animals because they are easy to kill and hunt. The other forty percent of the cubs will eventually die because of the lack of genetic information. Most cubs do not get more than one-month old (BigCatRescue).
For those who survive, after a few months of just drinking milk, they start to learn about hunting. Why they are a full-year-old, their mom leaves them alone. Then now the siblings will stay with each other for another six months (FelineWorlds). Although cheetahs are scary, fast and good hunters, they are not as dangerous as lions, tigers, leopards and other animals. The cheetahs are only dangerous to human children because cheetahs have bigger bodies than them. They are the least dangerous animals in the group of the four-legged predators.
The cheetah is shy animals, so when humans approach they run away. The only problems with making the cheetah a pet are that they need a lot of space to move. They need at least one hectare of land for each of the cheetahs. The other problem is that they need very specific nutrients with very specific ratios of different elements like phosphorus and others (Pethelpful). In conclusion, this paper explained where cheetahs live and how their size helps them in hunting. The amazing way they hunt with the help of their amazing vision.
The problems of keeping it as a pet, how you can make it a pet, and how much land they need. Their pregnancy, and how long it takes. And finally what do they eat, and what eats them.You should read more about the cheetah because there are many things about the cheetah yet to be discovered.
