In wild animals, felines have always attracted much attention, and powerful dangers are hidden under their beautiful fur, and the strength of this strength may be what attracts people's attention to study and pay attention to them.
The appearance of cats is very characteristic, and people can generally accurately distinguish which is a tiger, which is a lion, which is a kitten, but seeing that those are full of spots, everyone generally has only one collective name for them, that is, leopard.
In fact, there are different species of leopards, and there will be differences in pattern, coat color, and body size between different types of leopards. We often say that leopards, may be leopards, cheetahs, clouded leopards, snow leopards, jaguars, etc., of which leopards and cheetahs are more easily confused, so how to distinguish between leopards and cheetahs?
The first is that their classification is different, leopards belong to the cat family Leopard subfamily Leopard genus, like tigers, lions such as tigers, lions and other can make a roar are leopard subfamily.
The cheetah is a cat subfamily cheetah genus, the animal size of the cat subfamily is relatively small, like our common kittens, as well as lynx, rabbit fox such smaller cats, and cheetahs belong to the same cat subfamily, they are characterized by can not make a roar, can only make a sound like a cat barking.
Secondly, leopards and cheetahs can be distinguished only from their appearance. Leopards and cheetahs are about the same size, but it is clear that cheetahs are taller and slenderer, while leopards are thicker.
Leopards and cheetahs are between one meter three and one meter four in length, but the shoulder height of cheetahs is about 10 centimeters higher than that of leopards, while the neck circumference and abdominal circumference of leopards are about 10 centimeters longer than that of cheetahs.
So the kind that looks slender is the cheetah, and the one who looks thick and fat and has the typical physique of a cat is the leopard.
And the leopard also has a name called "golden leopard", because the spots on the leopard are very similar to the ancient copper coins, the spots on their bodies are hollow rose spots, and the cheetahs are solid black spots.
In addition, the cheetah's face has two long black tear marks, extending from the corner of the eye to the corner of the mouth, which is the most prominent feature of the cheetah, and the leopard does not have such a feature.
Their tails are also different, with leopards still having their hollow spots all the way to the end of their tails, while cheetahs have black ring-like markings to the end of their tails.
From these differences in appearance, it is possible to distinguish which is a cheetah and which is a leopard. Cheetahs and leopards also have some differences in habits.
It has always been said that cats are lone rangers, and leopards usually live alone, but cheetahs will occasionally move in groups of three or five and will also cooperate in hunting.
In terms of hunting methods, leopards are nocturnal animals, they have keen eyesight and hearing, like to ambush, are good at climbing trees, and will suddenly jump from trees to sneak attacks. After catching prey, it will also be dragged to a tree to hang up to avoid being robbed by other animals.
Cheetahs focus on speed, and cheetahs' body structure is designed for running at high speeds, and they all win with speed. This is also the reason why many people think that cheetahs are not like cats.
Cheetahs are recognized as one of the fastest animals in the world, they are known as the "Ferrari of the animal kingdom", can increase the speed from a standstill to 100 kilometers in three seconds, and at full speed, their bodies are almost empty, with only one point of focus at each step.
Such running speed requires them to have a smaller head to ensure that the head will not be harmed during high-speed movement, in this evolutionary process, the sacrifice is their canine teeth and masseter muscles, so their bite force is not large, in order to kill the prey, can only bite the throat accurately.
The physical exertion caused by high-speed sports hunting does not support their ability to protect their food, so their food is often snatched away by other predators such as lions and hyenas on the grassland.
Cheetahs have a predation success rate of about 40%, while the probability of their food being robbed is more than 70%, which means that most of the prey they prey is snatched away. During the season of food scarcity, cheetahs themselves are also at risk.
Someone has done a test before, throwing a piece of meat to a cheetah and putting a dachshund in it. The dachshund went over and snatched the meat, but the cheetah didn't react to it, just stepped aside and watched. This shows that cheetahs have a subconscious judgment on the fact that food is robbed, that is, they cannot go forward to grab it.
In the wild, snatching means facing stronger animals and potentially injuring. If other animals are injured, they have not lost the ability to prey, but once the cheetah is injured, it means that they lose the power to run at high speeds, they also lose the ability to hunt, and finally they can only starve to death.
So cheetahs would rather watch their hard-earned food being snatched away than rush up and fight for it.
On the other hand, the cheetah's paws, unlike other cats, cannot fully contract. This makes them not good at climbing trees, but that doesn't mean they can't climb trees. On the contrary, cheetah mothers attach great importance to cultivating their children's ability to climb trees, and will take the baby cheetah to climb the tree over and over again, and the baby cheetah will also play in the tree.
Natural selection, survival of the fittest, cheetahs are the only hunting hunters in the feline family, they are slender, strong muscles, and the body is evolved to be suitable for high-speed running, but this also brings a lack of strength. However, there will be no perfect things in nature, and in the end they will all go in a more suitable direction.