Nonfiction Facts About Cheetahs

Appearance

• With small heads and lanky bodies, cheetahs are built for speed. They are usually 3.5 to 4.5 feet long, not counting the tail, which can be 30 inches long. Cheetahs can be as small as 75 pounds or as heavy as 145 pounds, with males usually weighing slightly more than females. They are about 3 to 4 feet tall at the shoulder. Cheetahs can be yellowish or golden, and their coats are covered with small, black spots. The ends of the tails often have black bands and a tuft of white at the tip.

Speed

• Cheetahs are known as the sprinters of the animal world, which gives them the ability to catch large prey such as gazelles and wildebeest. They have a flexible spine and can cover up to 22 feet in one stride. They can run up to 70 mph. Although this top speed can be maintained only briefly, a cheetah can accelerate to 45 mph in 2.5 seconds. In comparison, the fastest racehorse recorded reached a top speed of 43 mph. There is evidence that the Sumerians of the Middle East tamed cheetahs and using them for hunting as early as 3,000 B.C.

Social Behavior

• Females tend to be solitary except when seeking out a mate. Males tend to band together in small groups. Males will fight each other, sometimes fatally, during breeding time over a female. Cheetahs are vocal felines, with a "chirrup" call similar to that of a bird. Females use the sound to call to their cubs. Cheetahs cannot roar, but they do cough, bleat, hiss, snarl, growl and purr. The cubs stay with their mothers for 18 months.

Habitat

• Most cheetahs live in sub-Saharan Africa, scattered throughout the region in small, isolated pockets. A few have been seen in Iran, but their strongest populations are in protected parks and wildlife reserves. Until about 10,000 years ago, cheetahs lived across Asia, Europe and North America as well as Africa. But farming and commercial developments have encroached on the cheetah's original habitat, and humans have overhunted prey typically eaten by cheetahs. Namibian ranchers are allowed by law to shoot cheetahs that prey on livestock. The Cheetah Conservation Fund estimates that there were about 100,000 cheetahs at the end of the 19th century; today there are 10,000.