Physical Characteristics

The cheetah, the world’s fastest  animal on land over short distances, can cover speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. Its long, slim and muscular legs are built for speed with a small, rounded head set on a long neck, a flexible spine, a deep chest, special pads on its feet for traction and a long tail for balance. It is also the only known cat that cannot retract its claws (other cats have retractable claws which enable them climb up trees), an adaptation to help maintain traction while on top flight like a soccer boot cleats. The cheetah has a distinctive black "tear tracks" running from the inside corner of each eye to the mouth which serve as an antiglare mechanism for daytime hunting.

 

Habitat
Cheetahs are mostly found in open savannah plains.

Habits and Behaviour
The cheetah is mostly a solitary animal and at times, a male will accompany a female for a short while after mating. Most often the female is found alone or with her cubs. The female Cheetah spend a lot of time  with their young teaching them how to hunt. Small live antelopes are brought back to the cubs so they can learn to chase and catch them. Cheetahs do not roar like lions, but they purr, hiss, whine and growl. They also make a variety of contact calls; the most common is a birdlike chirping sound.
 

Diet
Cheetahs usually prey on small antelopes such as Thomson's gazelles and impalas, but also hunt small mammals and birds. The cheetah gets as close to the prey as possible, then in a burst of speed it tries to outrun its quarry. Once the cheetah closes in, it knocks the prey to the ground with its paw and suffocates the animal with a bite to the neck. Once a cheetah has made a kill, it eats quickly and keeps an eye out for scavengers — lions, leopards, hyenas, vultures and jackals will steal from this timid predator. Unlike most other cats, the cheetah usually hunts during daylight, preferring early morning or early evening.
Predators and Threats
A shy creature that roams widely, the cheetah is not seen as easily as some other cats. Never numerous, cheetahs have become extinct in many areas, principally due to shrinking habitat, loss of species to prey upon, disease and a high rate of cub mortality. In some areas 50 to 75% of cheetah cubs die before 3 months, as they are highly susceptible to disease at this age.
Thought You Should Know

• That the name cheetah comes from an Indian word meaning "spotted one."

• That the young cub has a long grey-blue coat and a black underbelly that rapidly lightens and becomes spotted.

• n the early days, people trained cheetahs for hunting, and were depicted by many civilizations in their art and in written records.