Cheetah

The Cheetah known to man as one of the fastest land animal in the world. Able to move as fast as 100 and 120 km an hour, is rapidly becoming more and more endangered. Due to the following below the Cheetah is able to move at incredible speed, almost impossible for other animal.

• Small head that offers little resistance at high speed
• Long legs for large strides at high speed
• Flexible spine to allow for long strides
• Laterally flattened tail that is used as a rudder at high speed
• Enlarged liver, heart, lungs and vascular system to allow for extra oxygen needed by the body
• Reduced canine teeth to allow for enlarged sinuses for extra oxygen that is required at high speed
• Semi-retractable claws to act like running shoes.
• Ridged pads on feet for added traction

Endangered Species Report #12

The Cheetah

Written by: Holly L. Koppel

The cheetah, known as the fastest mammal on Earth, is fastly becoming one of Earth's most endangered species. Facing threats from hunting, habitat loss, and from predators, this species is in grave danger. Currently, there are several organizations trying to save this species that participate in captive breeding, and creating new wildlife refuges in its homeland of Africa.

One of the biggest organizations for conservation of the cheetah is the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), which is located in the country of Namibia in Africa. This organization helps to research and implement strategies for cheetah conservation in the wild. They also hold an 18,000 acre reserve for cheetahs on the same land as their headquarters.

The CCF is currently working to ensure the safety of cheetahs in the wild as well as the ones currently living on their reserve. One of the biggest problems facing the cheetah is from farmers in Namibia. The law in Namibia protects the cheetah; however, the law stipulates that people are allowed to remove cheetahs, only if they pose a threat to livestock or human life. Unfortunately, many farmers will capture cheetahs even if they are not posing a threat, and often remove or kill those that they have singled out. These farmers will then sell the live animal or their skins as limited international trade of these are permitted in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Botswanna.

Illegal hunting and trading of cheetahs are not the only problem the CCF is working on; they are also working to try to increase the cheetah population. The main difficulty with this is that there are so few cheetahs left in the wild, plus attempts at breeding in zoos has been largely unsuccessful due to little genetic diversity. In the wild, female cheetahs can mate throughout the year; however, it has been recorded that most breeding takes place during May-July. Once mating has occurred, newborn cheetahs are born about 90-95 days later. The number of cubs can be up to eight, though a litter is typically three to five cubs. When born, cheetah cubs are blind and helpless, but grow up very quickly. At about four to ten days of age, their eyes open and they begin to crawl around, and at three weeks old, they start to teethe. Because of threats from predators (i.e. lions and hyenas), the female will move her cubs from den to den every few days. For the first six weeks after birth, the female will leave the cubs alone most of the time in order to hunt and this is frequently when most predators strike. The mortality rate for cubs is as high as 90% in the wild.

When the cubs reach six to eight months old, they start to learn how to hunt. The mother teaches them to hunt many different types of animals including guinea fowl, rabbits, and small antelope. The cheetah cubs are not very good hunters on their own at this point, but they must learn quickly. When they reach 16-18 months old, the mother leaves them and breeds again with a new male and the cubs must learn how to take after themselves.

Unfortunately, attempts at breeding cheetahs in a captive environment has not proved to be successful, and with the infant mortality rate being so high in the wild, things do not look promising for the cheetah. The genetic diversity is quickly starting to decline and the captive population cannot sustain the wild population. Scientists do not have any concrete ideas of how to fix this problem, so they focus instead on the problems they can find solutions for—lack of education, hunting and loss of habitat.

The CCF in conjunction with zoos worldwide is striving to educate people about the cheetah, not only around the world, but especially in Africa. Most people view the cheetah as a dangerous animal because of its speed when it is chasing its prey (up to 71 mph!) and because they do not understand its habits. Cheetahs are normally solitary creatures who have existed on Earth since the time of the ancient Egyptians, but with lack of education amongst the people who share their homes with the cheetah, prospects for survival look dim.

DESCRIPTION

"Cheetahs have solid spots, as opposed to the rosette markings seen on leopards. Every cheetah has a unique pattern of markings - similar to a human fingerprint. It is possible to identify cheetah based on their markings, although to the untrained observer this is not very easy. Because Cheetahs claws are not fully retractable, they get worn down slightly when walking and running, and as such they are not as sharp as most cats. the exception is the Dew claw which does not come in to contact with the ground when walking or running, and as such is very sharp. The following picture shows the underside of a Cheetah's paw with the pads clearly visible. On the left of the picture the sharp dew claw is visible, and the remaining claws which are blunt from wear are visible at the top of the picture."

SPEED

"Cheetahs can reach top speeds of between 100 and 120 km/hour. This has been accurately measured on a grey hound race track. Although Cheetah have incredible speed and acceleration, they are only able to maintain these speeds for short periods before they have to stop to rest and to cool down. When running at full speed, the Cheetah covers 7-8 meters in just one stride, and takes four strides per second. The Cheetah does not just have a high top speed - it also has incredible acceleration, and can accelerate from zero to 80km per hour (50 miles per hour) in just 3 seconds. The downside to the Cheetahs speed is that it is not as strong as other predators such as a Leopard as additional muscle mass would add to the Cheetahs weight and slow it down."

Picture provided by Google.
www.predatorconservation.com