How fast are cheetahs wiki

Compared with other big cats, such as lions, tigers, and leopards, cheetahs have a wide vocabulary, according to the Smithsonian. In addition to purring, they are able to produce a large range of vocal cues, such as chirping similar to a bird chirp or dog's yelp ; stuttering a short, disconnected moan ; hissing; yelping loud chirp that can be heard up to a mile 1.

Each vocalization has a specific meaning. Various types of chirping, for example, could be a mother giving instructions to her cubs, or a female trying to attract a male to mate. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species , most cheetah subspecies are considered "vulnerable," meaning their populations are in decline and the species is likely to become endangered if the circumstances threatening its survival don't improve.

All populations of cheetah are on the decline, Live Science previously reported, with the total wild population estimated at less than 6, individuals. According to the Smithsonian, there were at least , cheetahs living throughout western Asia and across Africa in The largest population of cheetahs is a group of approximately 2, in Namibia. According to the African Wildlife Foundation, the cheetahs' steep population decline is tied to habitat loss, human conflict and illegal trade and poaching.

Conservation efforts are underway to try and help the population rebound. Groups such as the African Wildlife Foundation and the Cheetah Conservation Fund work locally with communities near cheetah populations to create sustainable solutions for agriculture and population growth, so that both the cats and humans have sufficient space.

Protected areas and wildlife parks, such as the Cheetah Experience in South Africa, protect cheetahs as their habitats are taken away. Captive breeding programs at zoos like the San Diego Zoo and the Smithsonian National Zoo are working to help the cheetah population grow. The programs are also striving to overcome the lack of genetic variation within wild cheetah populations.

This article was originally written by Live Science contributor Alina Bradford and has since been updated. Tiffany Means is a meteorologist turned science writer. Tiffany has a bachelor's degree in atmospheric science from the University of North Carolina, Asheville, and is earning a master's in science writing at Johns Hopkins University. Follow her on Twitter tifmeans. Live Science. Conservation status. Tiffany Means. MediaWiki page ID. Fossilworks ID for this taxon.

Freebase ID. Freebase Data Dumps. French Vikidia ID. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Google News topics ID. Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera. KBpedia ID. Klexikon article ID. MSW ID. Naver Encyclopedia ID. Taxonomy database of the U. National Center for Biotechnology Information.

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It appeared larger than a spotted cheetah and its fur had a different texture. There was another wild sighting in —the first in seven years. By , thirty-eight specimens had been recorded, many from pelts. In May , two spotted sisters gave birth there and each litter contained one king cheetah. The sisters had both mated with a wild-caught male from the Transvaal area where king cheetahs had been recorded.

Further king cheetahs were later born at the Centre. It has been known to exist in Zimbabwe, Botswana and in the northern part of South Africa's Transvaal province. In , the cause of this alternative coat pattern was found to be a mutation in the gene for transmembrane aminopeptidase Q Taqpep , the same gene responsible for the striped "mackerel" versus blotchy "classic" patterning seen in tabby cats.

Other rare color morphs of the species include speckles, melanism , albinism and gray coloration. Most have been reported in Indian cheetahs, particularly in captive specimens kept for hunting. The Mughal Emperor of India, Jahangir , recorded having a white cheetah presented to him in In the memoirs of Tuzk-e-Jahangiri , the Emperor, says that in the third year of his reign, "Raja Bir Singh Deo brought a white cheetah to show me.

Although other sorts of creatures, both birds and beasts have white varieties I had never seen a white cheetah. Its spots, which are usually black, were of a blue color, and the whiteness of the body also inclined to bluishness. Although the spots were formed of black pigment, the less dense pigmentation gives a hazy, grayish effect. As well as Jahangir's white cheetah at Agra, a report of "incipient albinism" has come from Beaufort West according to Guggisberg.

In a letter to "Nature in East Africa", H. Stoneham reported a melanistic cheetah black with ghost markings in the Trans-Nzoia District of Kenya in Vesey Fitzgerald saw a melanistic cheetah in Zambia in the company of a spotted cheetah.

Red erythristic cheetahs have dark tawny spots on a golden background. Cream isabelline cheetahs have pale red spots on a pale background. Some desert region cheetahs are unusually pale; probably they are better-camouflaged and therefore better hunters and more likely to breed and pass on their paler colouration. Blue Maltese or grey cheetahs have variously been described as white cheetahs with grey-blue spots chinchilla or pale grey cheetahs with darker grey spots Maltese mutation.

A cheetah with hardly any spots was shot in Tanzania in Pocock ; it had only a few spots on the neck and back, and these were unusually small. Another cheetah with this color-morph was photographed in Kenya in There are several geographically isolated populations of cheetah, all of which are found in Africa or southwestern Asia. A small population estimated at about 50 survive in the Khorasan Province of Iran , where conservationists are taking steps to protect them.

It is possible, though doubtful, that some cheetahs remain in India. The cheetah thrives in areas with vast expanses of land where prey is abundant.

The cheetah likes to live in an open biotope , such as semidesert , prairie , and thick brush, though it can be found in a variety of habitats. In Namibia, for example, it lives in grasslands , savannahs , areas of dense vegetation , and mountainous terrain.

In much of its former range, the cheetah was tamed by aristocrats and used to hunt antelopes in much the same way as is still done with members of the greyhound group of dogs. Females reach maturity in 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 study of cheetahs in the Serengeti showed females 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 ninety-eight days, although the average litter size is four. Cubs weigh from to g 5. 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 this mane gives a cheetah cub the appearance of the honey badger ratel , to scare away potential aggressors. Life span is up to twelve years in the wild, but up to twenty years in captivity.

In comparison to the Serengeti, the survival rate of cheetah cubs in the Kgalagadi area was seven times higher. The cheetah has a unique, well-structured 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 must 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 "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 often social and may 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 form a group, 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.

Males are territorial. Females' home ranges can be very large and a territory including several females' ranges is impossible to defend. Instead, males choose the points at which several of the females' home ranges overlap, creating a much smaller space, which can be properly defended against intruders while maximizing the chance of reproduction.

Coalitions will try their best to maintain territories to find females with whom they will mate. The size of the territory also depends on the available resources; depending on the part of Africa , the size of a male's territory can vary greatly from 37 to km 2 14 to 62 sq mi.

Males mark their territory by urinating on objects that stand out, such as trees, logs, or termite mounds. Unlike males and other felines, females do not establish territories. Instead, the area they live in is termed a home range. These overlap with other females' home ranges, often those of their daughters, mothers, or sisters. Females always hunt alone, although cubs will accompany their mothers to learn to hunt once they reach the age of five to six weeks.

The size of a home range depends entirely on the availability of prey. Cheetahs in southern African woodlands have ranges as small as 34 km 2 13 sq mi , while in some parts of Namibia they can reach 1, km 2 sq mi. The cheetah cannot roar, but ranks among the more vocal felids. Several sources refer to a wide variety of cheetah vocalizations, but most of these lack a detailed acoustic description which makes it difficult to reliably assess exactly what terms refer to exactly what vocalizations.

A short review of the terminology encountered is found in. The cheetah is a carnivore , eating mostly mammalian herbivores under 40 kg 88 lb and that which specialise in eating C3 plants, [ 45 ] including the Thomson's gazelle , the Grant's gazelle , the springbok , impala and blesbok. The young of larger mammals such as wildebeests and zebras are taken at times, and adults too, when cheetahs hunt in groups. Guineafowl and hares are also prey.

Ostriches are also taken on occasion. In Iran , cheetahs prey on the Chinkara , Goitered gazelle , ibexes and wild sheep. While the other big cats often hunt by night, the cheetah is a diurnal hunter. It will, however, hunt on moonlit nights during the full Moon as well, where visibility is excellent. The cheetah hunts by vision rather than by scent. Prey is stalked to within 10—30 m 33—98 ft , then chased. This is usually over in less than a minute, and if the cheetah fails to make a catch quickly, it will give up.

The estimated top speed of the cheetah ranges from 90 to kilometers per hour. Cheetahs refuse to run when their body temperature reaches Running at very high speeds puts a great deal of strain on the cheetah's body.

When sprinting, the cheetah's body temperature quickly elevates. 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; the cheetah is not strong enough to break the necks of most prey.

The bite may also puncture a vital artery in the neck. Then the cheetah proceeds to devour its catch as quickly as possible before the kill is taken by stronger predators. Data from runs by three female and two male adults, with an average run distance of m, showed that hunting cheetahs can run 58 miles 93 km per hour.

Most chases involved extreme maneuverability more than speed. The study indicated that cheetahs seemed to rarely run close to 60 mph or more; on most hunts they reached 30 to 35 mph, but they accelerated and changed direction much more rapidly than any other land animal.

The diet of a cheetah depends on the area in which it lives. For example, on the East African plains, its preferred prey is the Thomson's gazelle. This small antelope is smaller than the cheetah, which makes it an appropriate prey.

In contrast, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, the main species of the cheetah's prey preference is the significantly larger nyala , which can weigh up to kg lb in the male. Despite their speed and hunting prowess, cheetahs are largely outranked by other large predators in most of their range. Because they have evolved for short bursts of extreme speed at the expense of their power, they cannot defend themselves against most of Africa's other predator species.

They usually avoid fighting and will surrender a kill immediately to even a single hyena, rather than risk injury. Because cheetahs rely on their speed to obtain their meals, any injury that slows them down could essentially be life-threatening.

Due to the reduction in habitat in Africa, cheetahs in recent years have faced greater pressure from other native African predators as available range declines. Cheetah cubs often hide in thick brush for safety. Mother cheetahs will defend their young and are at times successful in driving predators away from their cubs. Coalitions of male cheetahs can also chase away other predators, depending on the coalition size and the size and number of the predator.

Because of its speed, a healthy adult cheetah has few enemies. 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. White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida , which maintains a significant population of cheetahs, has cited that captive management presents challenges because of health, nutrition and socialization of the cats, but that these have been overcome through collaborations among wildlife facilities.

Cheetahs are far less aggressive than other felids and can be tamed, so cubs are sometimes illegally sold as pets. Cheetahs were formerly, and sometimes still are, hunted because many farmers believe that they eat livestock. When the species came under threat, numerous campaigns were launched to try to educate farmers and encourage them to conserve cheetahs. Recent evidence has shown that cheetahs will not attack and eat livestock if they can avoid doing so, as they prefer their wild prey.

Ancient Egyptians often kept cheetahs as pets, and also tamed and trained them for hunting. But not domesticated i. Cheetahs would be taken to hunting fields in low-sided carts or by horseback, hooded and blindfolded, and kept on leashes while dogs flushed out their prey. When the prey was near enough, the cheetahs would be released and their blindfolds removed.

This tradition was passed on to the ancient Persians and brought to India, where the practice was continued by Indian princes into the twentieth century. Cheetahs continued to be associated with royalty and elegance, their use as pets spreading just as their hunting skills were.

Other such princes and kings kept them as pets, including Genghis Khan and Charlemagne , who boasted of having kept cheetahs within their palace grounds. Akbar the Great , ruler of the Mughal Empire from to , kept as many as 1, cheetahs. Cheetahs are still tamed in the modern world. One example is Burmani, who has been raised in England at Eagle Heights wild animal park from the age of three months.

He was bred in a deer park in Germany. He is so tame that he has lost his hunting instinct. Cheetah cubs have a high mortality rate due to predation by other carnivores, such as the lion and hyena , and perhaps genetic factors. It has been suggested that the low genetic diversity of cheetahs is a cause of poor sperm, birth defects, cramped teeth, curled tails, and bent limbs.

Some biologists even believe that they are too inbred to flourish as a species. Approximately 12, cheetahs remain in the wild in twenty-five African countries; Namibia has the most, with about 2, Another 50 to 60 critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs are thought to remain in Iran.

There have been successful breeding programs, including the use of in vitro fertilisation , in zoos around the world. Founded in Namibia in , the Cheetah Conservation Fund 's mission is to be the world's resource charged with protecting the cheetah and to ensure its future. The organization works with all stakeholders within the cheetah's ecosystem to develop best practices in research, education and ecology and create a sustainable model from which all other species, including people, will benefit.

The South African Cheetah Conservation Foundation has close links and assists in training and sharing program successes with other countries where cheetahs live, including Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iran and Algeria. The organization's international program includes distributing materials, lending resources and support, and providing training through Africa and the rest of the world.

Asiatic cheetahs have been known to exist in India for a very long time, but as a result of hunting and other causes, cheetahs have been extinct in India since the s. A captive propagation project has been proposed. Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh told the Rajya Sabha on 7 July , "The cheetah is the only animal that has been described extinct in India in the last years.

We have to get them from abroad to repopulate the species. However, the plan to reintroduce the African cheetahs to India has been suspended after discovering the distinctness between the cheetahs from Asia and Africa, having been separated between 32, to 67, years ago. Help Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Namespaces Article Discussion.

Views Read Edit View history. This article is about the animal. For other uses, see Cheetah disambiguation. Not to be confused with Leopard. Vulnerable IUCN 3.