Cheetah Animal

CHEETAH The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a member of the cat family (Felidae), It is the fastest of all land animals and can reach speeds between 112 kilometres per hour (70 mph) and 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph) in short bursts up to 460 metres (500 yd), and has the ability to accelerate from 0 to 110 kilometres per hour (68 mph) in three seconds, more quickly than most supercars. A poor climber that hunts by speed and stealth. The word "Cheetah" is derived from the Hindi word "Chita" 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.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS - The cheetah has a slender, long-legged body with blunt semi-retractable claws. - Its chest is deep and its waist is narrow. - The coarse, short fur of the cheetah is tan with round black spots measuring from 2 centimetres (0.79 in) to 3 centimetres (1.2 in) across, affording it some camouflage while hunting. - There are no spots on its white underside, The Cheetahs long thick tail has spots which turn into rings and at the end is tipped with white. The throat and abdomen are a creamy white in color. - The Cheetah has a small head with high set eyes and short rounded ears tipped with white on the back - Black "tear marks" run from the corner of its eyes down the sides of the nose to its mouth to keep sunlight out of its eyes and to aid in hunting and - Males tend to be slightly larger than females and have slightly bigger heads, but there is not a great variation in cheetah sizes and it is seeing long distances. difficult to tell males and females apart by appearance alone. - The adult animal weighs from 40 kilograms (88 lb) to 65 kilograms (140 lb). Its total body length is from 115 centimetres (45 in) to 135 centimetres (53 in), while the tail can measure up to 84 centimetres (33 in) in length. - Compared to a similarly-sized leopard, the cheetah is generally shorter-bodied, but is longer tailed and taller (it averages about 90 centimetres (35 in) tall) and so it appears more streamlined.

Adaptations that enable the cheetah to run as fast as it does include:

• Long, slim, muscular legs. • Specialized muscles, which act simultaneously for high acceleration, allowing greater swing to the limbs.

• Oversized liver and large, strong arteries. • Powerful enlarged heart and lungs that work together to circulate oxygen efficiently. [During a typical chase its respiratory rate increases from 60 to 150 breaths per minute While running].

• Flexible spine, a deep chest, special pads on its feet for traction and a long tail for balance. • Small, rounded head set on a long neck. Flat face, reduced muzzle length allowing the large eyes to be positioned for maximum binocular vision.

• Tail as a rudder-like means of steering [to allow it to make sharp turns, necessary to outflank prey who often make such turns to escape]

• Its hip and shoulder girdles swivel on a flexible spine that curves up and down, as the limbs are alternately bunched up and then extended when running, giving greater reach to the legs.

HABITAT The cheetah thrives in areas with vast expanses of land where prey is abundant. The cheetah prefers to live in an open biotope, such as semidesert, prairie, and thick brush. The cheetah is a vulnerable species. Out of all the big cats, it is the least able to adapt to new environments. It has always proved difficult to breed in captivity, although recently a few zoos have been successful. Once widely hunted for its fur, the cheetah now suffers more from the loss of both habitat and prey. Ninety-five percent live on commercial farms. The cheetah is found in the wild primarily in Africa, the distribution of the cheetah is now limited to Africa. There are five subspecies of cheetah in the genus Acinonyx: four in Africa and one in Iran. The endangered subspecies Acinonyx jubatus venaticus lives in Asia (Iran). In Namibia, it has been found in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, savannahs, dense vegetation, and mountainous terrain. Conservationists using camera traps have recently discovered surviving populations in Iran and are taking steps to protect them. In 1990, there were reports in the Times of India of a cheetah sighting in eastern India. There is a chance some cheetahs remain in India, though it is doubtful.

There have also been several unconfirmed reports of Asiatic cheetahs in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Subspecies . The current five sub-species of Acinonyx jubatus are: Acinonyx jubatus hecki - West Africa. Acinonyx jubatus jubatus - Southern Africa. Acinonyx jubatus raineyii - East Africa. Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii Central Asia. Acinonyx jubatus venaticus - Iran. Formerly Southwest Asia including India; also known as the Asiatic, Iranian or Indian Cheetah.

The cheetah is often mistaken for a leopard. Its distinguishing marks are the long teardropshaped lines on each side of the nose from the corner of its eyes to its mouth. The body frame of the cheetah is also very different from that of the leopard, most notably so in its thinner and longer tail, and unlike the leopard, its spots are not arranged into rosettes.

King Cheetah

cheetahs with larger, blotchy, merged spots are known as 'king cheetahs'. It was once thought to be a separate subspecies, but it is merely a mutation of the African cheetah. The 'king cheetah' has only been seen in the wild a handful of times, but it has been bred in captivity.

It was first noted in Zimbabwe , a live king cheetah was not photographed until 1974 in South Africa's In May 1981, two spotted sisters gave birth there and each litter contained one king cheetah. The sisters had both mated with a wildcaught male from the Transvaal area (where king cheetahs had been recorded).

REPRODUCTION AND SOCIAL LIFE Females reach maturity within twenty to twenty-four months, and males around twelve months (although they do not usually mate until at least three years old), and mating occurs throughout the year. A recent study of cheetahs in the Serengeti showed that female cheetahs are sexually promiscuous and often have cubs by many different males. Females give birth to up to nine cubs after a gestation period of ninety to ninetyeight days, although the average litter size is three to five. Cubs weigh from 150 grams (5.3 oz) to 300 grams (11 oz) at birth. Unlike some other cats, the cheetah is born with its characteristic spots. Cubs are also born with a downy underlying fur on their necks, called a mantle, extending to mid-back. This gives them a mane or Mohawk-type appearance; this fur is shed as the cheetah grows older. It has been speculated that this mane gives a cheetah cub the appearance of the ratel, to scare away potential aggressors. Death rate is very high during the early weeks, and up to 90% of the cubs are killed during this time by lions, hyenas or even by eagles. Cubs leave their mother between thirteen and twenty months after birth. Life span is up to twelve years in wild, but up to twenty years in captivity. Female cheetahs typically have a litter of three cubs and live with them for one and a half to two years. Young cubs spend their first year learning from their mother and practicing hunting techniques with playful games. Male cheetahs live alone or in small groups, often with their littermates.

Unlike males, females are solitary and tend to avoid each other, though some mother/daughter pairs have been known to be formed for small periods of time. The cheetah has a unique, wellstructured social order. Females live alone except when they are raising cubs and they raise their cubs on their own. The first eighteen months of a cub's life are important - cubs learn many lessons because survival depends on knowing how to hunt wild prey species and avoid other predators. At eighteen months, the mother leaves the cubs, who then form a sibling, or 'sib', group, that will stay together for another six months. At about two years, the female siblings leave the group, and the young males remain together for life. Males are very sociable and will group together for life, usually with their brothers in the same litter; although if a cub is the only male in the litter then two or three lone males may group up, or a lone male may join an existing group. These groups are called coalitions. A coalition is six times more likely to obtain an animal territory than a lone male, although studies have shown that coalitions keep their territories just as long as lone males between four to four and a half years.

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE Cheetah fur was formerly regarded as a status symbol. Today, cheetahs have a growing economic importance for ecotourism and they are also found in zoos. The fur is coarse to the touch not silky as it appears. The Cheetahs coat varies from a tawny to golden tone covered in a pattern of solid black spots averaging .75"-1.5" in diameter.

VOCALIZATIONS Unlike "true" big cats, the cheetah can purr as it inhales, but cannot roar. By contrast, the big cats can roar but cannot purr, except while exhaling. Cheetah does have the following vocalizations:

Yipping - When cheetahs attempt to find each other, or a mother tries to locate her cubs, it uses a high-pitched barking called yipping. The yips made by a cheetah cub sound more like a bird chirping, and so are termed chirping. Churring or stuttering - This vocalization is emitted by a cheetah during social meetings. A churr can be seen as a social invitation to other cheetahs, an expression of interest, uncertainty, or appeasement or during meetings with the opposite sex.

Growling - This vocalization is often accompanied by hissing and spitting and is exhibited by the cheetah during annoyance, or when faced with danger. Yowling - This is an escalated version of growling, usually displayed when danger worsens. Purring - This is made when the cheetah is content, usually during pleasant social meetings (mostly between cubs and their mothers).

DIET AND HUNTING The cheetah is a carnivore, eating mostly mammals under 40 kilograms (88 lb), including Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, the Springbok antelope and the impala. The young of larger mammals such as wildebeests and zebras are taken at times, adults too, when the cats hunt in groups. Guineafowl and hares are also prey. While the other big cats mainly hunt by night, the cheetah The is a diurnal hunter. It hunts usually Cheetah hunts by vision rather than by scent. Prey is stalked to either early in the morning or later in the evening when it is not so hot, within 10 metres (33 ft)-30 metres (98 ft), then chased. This is usually over in less than a minute, and if the cheetah fails to make a catch but there is still enough light. quickly, it will give up. The cheetah has an average hunting success rate of around 50% - half of its chases result in failure.

Running at high speeds puts a great deal of strain on the cheetah's body. When sprinting, the cheetah's body temperature becomes so high that it would be deadly to continue - this is why the cheetah is often seen resting after it has caught its prey. While resting the cheetah risks a 50% chance of losing its catch to other predators, such as the lion, the leopard, the spotted hyena and baboons. If it is a hard chase, it sometimes needs to rest for half an hour or more. The cheetah kills its prey by tripping it during the chase, then biting it on the underside of the throat to suffocate it, for the cheetah is not strong enough to break the necks of the four-legged prey it mainly hunts.