Cheetahs are the fastest land animals and have the unique ability to sprint at speeds up to 60 mph. They live primarily in open grasslands, arid regions, and dense forests in Africa, Asia, and Southern Russia. These elusive carnivores are widely recognized for their spots and impressive speed. However, there’s so much more to know about these captivating cats!
Read on to discover 10 Facts about Cheetahs you probably didn’t know…
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| Photo by antonytrivet on Pixabay |
Cheetahs are fast. Really fast.
It may be their most defining characteristic, but it’s also
the one that is most often overemphasized. Cheetahs are certainly faster than
any human being, but they’re not necessarily faster than other big cats. You
don’t have to take our word for it – there are many scientific studies that
have been conducted to determine the cheetah’s top speed. Most of them put it
at between 61 and 70 miles per hour. While that is certainly impressive, it’s
not the fastest in the world. The caracal, a small African wild cat, has been clocked
at nearly 75 miles per hour. The puma, a close cousin of the cheetah, has been
clocked at 64 miles per hour. For comparison, a horse can trot at about 25 to
30 miles per hour, while the fastest human athletes can run at about 27 miles
per hour.
Cheetahs are adorably clumsy.
Cheetahs are wonderfully agile animals, but they’re also
notoriously clumsy. Usually, this is represented in cartoons or comic strips
where the cheetah is shown to be constantly falling off things or tripping over
its own legs. It’s true that cheetahs have very low centers of gravity and
their hind legs are set much further backward than those of most cats. This
makes them less stable and more likely to lose their balance. If you watch a
real cheetah in action, you’ll notice that the clumsy depictions in cartoons
are actually fairly accurate. The cheetah is surprisingly nimble when it comes
to running, but it is much more likely to stumble, trip, and fall when running
at slower speeds or walking. This is one reason why you’ll rarely see cheetahs
stalking their prey on foot – they would easily lose their footing and get
themselves into serious trouble.
Cheetahs have a very short temper, so stay away from their tails.
It may not be the most pressing fact about cheetahs, but
it’s still one worth knowing. Cheetahs are highly territorial animals and have
a very short fuse. If you’re ever lucky enough to be up close to a wild
cheetah, you should always keep an eye on its tail. While the cheetah is much
less aggressive than other large cats, it will often swat its tail at nearby
objects or people, particularly if they look like they’re getting too close to
the cheetah’s territory. If the cheetah swats its tail at you, this is not a
friendly gesture. It is warning you to stay away or risk being attacked.
Cheetahs have the biggest range of any cat, but you won’t find them in the
jungle.
A cheetah’s range refers to the area over which it has
complete control and ownership. Cheetahs have the largest range of any big cat,
with females claiming the whole area within a 100-mile radius of their chosen
den. You rarely see cheetahs in dense forests, swamps, or other places with
heavy vegetation. Instead, you’ll find them in open grasslands, savannahs,
deserts, and even semi-arid scrublands. To put this range into perspective,
house cats have a range of about one or two miles. Lions have a range of around
20 to 50 miles. Since cheetahs are not as powerful or as aggressive as lions,
their range is naturally smaller, but it’s still impressive.
A cheetah’s spots serve as camouflage and also help to estimate distances.
Most people know that cheetahs have spots, but few people
know why they have spots. Cheetahs are actually the only cat species with spots
as opposed to solid colors like every other member of the big cat family. To
make matters even more confusing, cheetahs are also the only cats with three
types of fur: a thick, long undercoat, a shorter, coarser topcoat, and spots.
There is no consensus on why cheetahs have spots, but many experts believe that
their spots help to camouflage them from prey and predators alike. When
stalking their prey, cheetahs often try to approach from downwind so that their
scent doesn’t give them away. Their spots allow them to blend into the
landscape and avoid detection by looking like bushes or other vegetation.
The cheetah is one of only a few big cats that cannot jump.
This fact is actually a byproduct of the previous one.
Cheetahs cannot jump because their hind legs are set very far back on their
bodies. Because of this, their long legs make it impossible for them to spring
off the ground and leap into the air. This is also the reason why cheetahs are
so terrible at climbing trees – they simply don’t have the leg strength to pull
themselves up with their back legs. This is not to say that cheetahs can’t
climb at all – they can, but they’re much less efficient at it.
Despite their light frames, cheetahs are good climbers as well as runners.
Like their jumping abilities, cheetahs are also fairly poor
climbers. They are not strong or agile enough to climb a tree with any sort of
speed or skill. Despite their relative clumsiness, cheetahs are surprisingly
good climbers, but they’re best at climbing other animals. Cheetahs often use
trees as perches from which to ambush nearby animals and pounce at them from
above. Cheetahs may not be able to go up a tree very quickly, but they can
certainly go down one even more slowly. If a cheetah needs to descend from a
high perch quickly, they simply contort their bodies into a sort of sideways
slither and shimmy down the trunk.
You’ll most often find cheetahs in Africa on safari or at the zoo – unless
something goes terribly wrong with the climate.
Cheetahs live on every continent except for Antarctica, but
you’ll find the greatest concentrations of them in Africa, Iran, and Southwest
Asia. As you’ve probably guessed, these areas are also the ones most vulnerable
to climate change. Unfortunately, cheetahs are particularly sensitive to small
changes in the environment, meaning their populations are especially vulnerable
to climate change. Due to the fact that cheetahs are wide-ranging, solitary
animals that require large territories, they are also particularly sensitive to
habitat loss. With the increasing frequency of wildfires, habitat loss is a
very real danger. You’ll most often find cheetahs in zoos, where they are
carefully monitored and cared for by trained zookeepers.
Cheetahs are a beautiful and fascinating species, but they
are also an endangered one. While these big cats are not yet at risk of
extinction, their numbers are dwindling. As you’ve learned in this article,
cheetahs are remarkably unique creatures. They are fierce hunters, but they are
also very delicate creatures that require a stable environment to thrive. If we
humans can preserve their habitats and protect their species, cheetahs may just
become the next pandas – adorable and famous wild animals that are coddled and
adored by all. If we fail to do so, cheetahs may simply disappear into the
pages of history.