Cheetahs

Today’s topic is chosen by my son who asked me to write about cheetahs.

About

The name cheetah comes from a Hindi word ‘chita’, which means ‘spotted one’. Each cheetah’s spots are unique to individual animals, and offer a level of camouflage when hunting. Not all cheetahs’ spots are defined clearly though. In rare cases, a recessive gene means the spots merge into larger blotches and stripes. These cheetahs are called ‘king cheetahs’.

Unlike big cats, cheetahs cannot roar. This is because of the hyoid bone in the cheetah’s neck. In big cats, the hyoid is a two-piece bone which enables them to roar. The cheetah’s hyoid, meanwhile, is a single piece leaving them unable to roar. Instead, their sounds include miaowing, chirruping, and purring.

Need for Speed

Known for their speed, cheetahs are the fastest land animal. With an acceleration of nought to sixty miles per hour in three seconds, they out-pace most sports cars. When running at full tilt, the animal takes three strides a second, covering seven metres per stride. They can reach maximum speeds of 68 to 75 miles per hour. Cheetahs are built for speed rather than stamina, and most of their chases are over in less than a minute. In fact, one study found that cheetahs spend only 12% of their day moving around.

Cheetahs are designed to sprint. In pursuit, their long tail acts as a rudder, helping the cheetah make sharp turns. A deep chest, flexible spine, enlarged heart, lungs, arteries, and nostrils are all adaptations designed to give extra capacity for running. A cheetah’s specially adapted paw pads and claws offer extra grip. Unlike other cats, cheetahs cannot retract their claws. This means they are always prepared to sprint at very short notice. The black marks (malar stripes) which run from their eyes down the side of their face are designed to attract the glare of the sun, stopping it from obstructing the cheetah’s view.

Family

Although it is a wild cat, the cheetah is not classed a big cat. The big cat family is limited to those within the Panthera family: lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard, and jaguar. Cheetahs, meanwhile, are the only remaining member of the Acinonyx family.

Cheetahs tend to prefer daytime hunting, possibly to reduce the chances of nighttime predators from stealing their prey. While male cheetahs live together in a group known as a coalition, females are solitary animals. They raise their cubs (usually around 3-5 in number) alone, until the cubs leave when they are about 18 months old. The cubs stay together a few months longer, continuing to learn how to hunt. When the females reach sexual maturity, they move on independently. The male cubs remain together, teaming up to protect their territory and hunt large prey.

History

The first fossil records of cheetahs date back around 4 million years ago. About 100,000 years ago, the Pleistocene extinction saw a number of large mammals, including the cheetah populations of North America and Europe became extinct. Owing to a founder effect – whereby a new colony of a species is established by members of the original population – the Asian and African cheetahs survived. However, the nature of the founder effect leads to a reduction in genetic diversity.

Cheetahs were considered sacred in ancient Egypt, and kept as hunting companions by pharaohs. Symbols of cheetahs have been found in Egyptian tombs, as part of the belief that the cheetah would escort a Pharaoh quickly to the afterlife.

From the 14th to the 16th century, there were records of cheetahs being kept by royalty across Europe and through China. In Russia, cheetahs were used for hunting, rivalling dogs in popularity. They were depicted in 18th and 19th century paintings as companions to noble families.

The Future

The cheetah population has dropped from around 100,000 in 1900 to just over 6,500 mature cheetahs in 2021. They are once again facing extinction.

The three main factors are habitat destruction (which impacts both cheetahs and their prey), hunting by humans, and climate change. Having an already reduced genetic pool after the Pleistocene extinction, cheetahs have a low rate of reproductive success. And when they do reproduce, only 5% of cubs will reach adulthood.

Though they are distributed quite widely across the African continent, cheetahs are almost extinct in Asia. A few survive in Iran, but the population here is small, and dwindling.

A number of international organisations are working to support the cheetah. The list below is by no means exhaustive, but represents some of the sites which have caught my attention in particular while researching this post.

Born Free works with wildlife rescue centres and government organisations in a number of ways. They promote peaceful coexistence between cheetahs and humans, rehabilitate cheetahs such as those orphaned, or rescued from illegal trade, and target animal traffickers. Find out more about their work here, including an option to adopt a cheetah.

The African Wildlife Foundation works with communities to create enough separate spaces for farmers, and cheetahs to coexist without encroaching on each other’s area. They also support farmers in building livestock enclosures which are protected against predation, providing funding to replace livestock lost to predators.

Finally, the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which was founded in Namibia in 1990, and is dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild. Their focus is on creating a sustainable environment in which humans and cats can coexist.