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Cheetahs are the fastest-running mammals in the world. In 2012, at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio, USA, a cheetah named Sarah ran the entire 100-meter journey in 5.95 seconds, peaking at 61 miles (98 kilometers per hour), breaking the world record previously held by itself. When the cheetah sprints at full speed, each step can reach a stride length of 21 feet, which is between 6 and 7 meters. Every time they chase their prey, the cheetah consumes a lot of energy, and the respiratory and circulatory systems are overloaded. This allows them to chase their prey within a range of about 200 meters and last no more than a minute. If it exceeds this range, its body will rise sharply because it is too fast, usually reaching more than 41 degrees Celsius, and eventually causing the body to collapse. Usually, even if a cheetah successfully hunts its prey, it takes about 30 minutes to recover before it can eat.
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Not only do cheetahs run fast, but they also start up particularly fast. It takes only 3 seconds from start to acceleration to 100 kilometers per hour.
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When the cries of big cats are mentioned, many people's minds will first come up with the mighty lion roar, the domineering tiger roar. But have you ever heard a cheetah's cry? You heard that right, cheetahs bark like this, their voices are not only not at all domineering, but even a little soft. This is mainly because the structure of the cheetah's vocal cords is different from that of other big cats. The hyoid bone in their throats is relatively hard, so the sound they make is small and sharp. But the hyoid bone of a tiger or lion has been replaced by ligaments, so the sound is loud and low. Therefore, although they belong to the same family of leopards, cheetahs are listed separately in the subfamily cats. Big cats such as tigers, lions, and jaguars are all classified into the leopard subfamily. The ability to roar is one of the important signs that distinguishes the two.
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Unlike many big cats, cheetahs prefer to hunt during the day. They will use the cover of hills or other terrain to quietly approach the locked prey, and then suddenly activate at about 30 meters away from the prey, with their lightning speed, launching a fatal blow to the throat of the prey. Cheetahs have short teeth and usually do not bite their prey at once, and in most cases, prey that is bitten by it in the throat will die of suffocation, and this process will last for 5 minutes, or even more than 10 minutes. After the prey dies, it drags the body of the prey into the dense forest to eat. Cheetahs can go three or four days without drinking a drop of water, but they need to eat about 2 kilograms of meat a day.
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Adult cheetahs generally have a torso length of 1 m to 1.5 m, weigh between 35 and 72 kg, shoulder heights of 0.7 to 0.9 m, and tail lengths between 0.6 m and 0.8 m. The cheetah's ability to become a daunting hunter in nature is not only due to its amazing speed. It also has a great hunting magic weapon, that is, its agility. It can jump sideways, steer quickly, and slow down abruptly or come to a screeching halt. And this series of masterpieces is inseparable from the big, thick and flexible tail it has. Its tail, like the rudder of a ship, allows it to maintain balance while running and control its body as it pleases. This also makes it the only "big cat" that can turn in mid-air while sprinting. Despite its two magic weapons of speed and agility, the cheetah is not a perfect hunting machine. Its hunting success rate is only about 50%.
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The fur on the cheetah's body is tanned with black spots. The spots on each cheetah are unique, and are said to be between 2,000 and 3,000. Cheetah coat color and spots are a natural protective color that allows it to be well hidden in the grassland.
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Many people are confused about the silly distinction between cheetahs and leopards. I always felt that the two of them looked exactly the same. In fact, in addition to the smaller size of the cheetah, the spot pattern on the two is not the same, the most obvious difference in their appearance is that the cheetah has a curved black line from the corner of the left and right corners of the eye to the side of the mouth, which looks like the tear marks formed by its excessive tears. This is the most prominent feature of cheetahs and the easiest way to identify them. There have long been divergent views on how cheetah tear marks are formed, and what exactly they do. Some believe that they are a kind of camouflage, like the oil paint applied by indians on their faces, mainly acting as a deterrent to the enemy. It is also believed that cheetahs mainly hunt during the day, and this black tear mark can absorb strong sunlight, so that it does not feel dazzling or dazzling during the hunting process, so that it can more easily catch prey. In fact, it is equivalent to wearing a unique pair of sunglasses by nature. Of course, there are also those who believe that this is the result of natural selection and has no special effect.
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Cheetahs do not have a fixed estrus period, and they can mate at any time of the year. Nor do they practice monogamy, but rather free competition in the wild. Cheetahs have a gestation period of 3 months and will have about 2-4 cubs in a litter. After the baby cheetah is born, the male cheetah leaves the family, while the female cheetah raises the cubs alone and teaches them hunting skills so that they can roam the rivers and lakes alone. When the baby cheetah reaches 12-18 months old, it will leave its mother. Sisters are separated, while brothers are likely to live together for the rest of their lives. Wild cheetahs give birth to a litter of pups about every 18 months, but their survival rate is low.
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Cheetahs have been on the planet for 1-2 million years and were once widely distributed across the African and Asian continents. Today, however, they inhabit the dry, open grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, most of them in nature reserves or national parks. In addition, there are about 200 cheetahs living in Iran.
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In 1900, there were about 100,000 cheetahs in the world. Today, its wild population has plummeted to between 9,000 and 12,000. The three main reasons for the sharp decline in its number include the wanton hunting of human beings for the illegal trade, the annual occupation of habitat by humans, and the significant reduction of herbivores. In addition, due to the low diversity of the cheetah genome, this also leads to susceptibility to disease outbreaks in the cheetah population and reproductive difficulties. In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added it to the Red List of Threatened Species. (Text/Panda Eyes See the World)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="57" > [related video link].</h1>
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