Cheetah Adaptations

Cheetah are highly evolved beings. They are the the fastest land animals, reaching speeds of 70mph, speeds they can achieve because their bodies are finely tuned towards sprinting.

As I mentioned in the last post, cheetah claws are not, unlike other cats, retractable. This is so they dig in, like running spikes, in the event of a chase. Their tails are very long and broad, acting like a rudder to help make sharp turns whilst running. Their jaws are unusually small, to make room for air cavities in the skull for increased breathing capacity. When cheetah run at top speed, their strides can reach nine metres, half of which they spend airborne. To enable them to make these huge strides, their spines are very flexible, curving exaggeratedly as both the forelimbs and hindlimbs stretch out in opposite directions.

Cheetah can accelerate very quickly, reaching 45mph from a standing start in just two strides, and making a mind-boggling four strides every second at their fastest. Of course, as with people, some cheetah are faster than others; the fastest ever recorded covered 100m in 5.95 seconds (compared to Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds).

Whilst cheetah are faster than any of their prey when they sprint, they must endeavour to catch it quickly- they can only maintain a sprint for a couple of hundred metres, and once they are exhausted, it takes half an hour to recover!