The lightning killer cheetah turns out to be a big cowardly cat!

This fastest animal on earth is gradually disappearing in many places due to human infringement.

Come on, let's race! | Pixabay

A strange cat with all its talent points in speed

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a very unique cat. It is the only species in the genus Acinonyx and belongs to the puma lineage. Among the living cats, the puma and the slender-waisted cat (Puma yaguarondi) are the closest. The puma lineage diverged from other cat species about 6.7 million years ago, while the oldest cheetah appeared 3.5 million years ago.

The cheetah has a slender body, four long legs, a slim waist, no fat, and is very fit. Cats have fleshy claw sheaths on their feet. This structure is to protect their claws and keep them sharp as a weapon when hunting. The cheetah's claws are obviously different from those of other cats. They are more similar to canines. The cheetah's claws can only be partially retracted. These claws can hold the ground firmly when running at high speeds, just like the nails of running shoes . The cheetah also has a long tail for balance when running.

The cheetah's claws have been blunted (compared to your own cat) | marko8904 / Wikimedia Commons

The cheetah's magical outfit makes it the sprint champion among living animals. In 2012, National Geographic measured a cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo and found that it ran 100 meters in 5.95 seconds, with a maximum instantaneous speed of 98 kilometers per hour .

The graceful movements of a cheetah when running is many people's first impression of "wild animals" | National Geographic / YouTube

Love-hate partners

When I was young, I loved watching Animal World. With the introduction of teacher Zhao Zhongxiang, I got to know the cheetah and its "good friend" Thomson's gazelle (Gazella thomsoni). Most of the time, Thomson's gazelle appears as food for cheetahs, but the relationship between the two is more like a pair of friends who love and hate each other.

Thomson's gazelle | Christoph Strässler / Wikimedia Commons

The running speed of Thomson's gazelle can reach 90 kilometers per hour, which is only slightly slower than that of cheetah. However, gazelle has better endurance than cheetah . When cheetahs are hunting, they usually do not run more than 300 meters at full speed. The longest distance that cheetahs have been recorded to have sprinted is 600 meters, while Thomson's gazelle can run about 2 kilometers. If the chasing distance exceeds 300 meters, the gazelle can basically ensure its own safety. Moreover, experienced gazelles will use feints and sharp turns to shake off cheetahs when running at full speed.

Only the fastest gazelle can escape the cheetah, and only the fastest cheetah can catch the gazelle. After countless generations of evolution, such a pair of powerful friends appeared in the world. In evolutionary biology, this phenomenon is called the " arms race " principle.

Coincidentally, there is an animal called pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in North America. Although it is called antelope, pronghorn is very distantly related to gazelle. Its speed is similar to that of gazelle, making it the fastest runner in North America. The strange thing is that no existing carnivores in the Americas can run so fast , so why do pronghorns want to increase their running speed so much?

Pronghorn. Some consider it the best running animal in terms of both speed and endurance | ALAN SCHMIERER / Wikimedia Commons

Some researchers believe that this is thanks to another type of cat on the North American continent, Miracinonyx , whose body structure is very similar to that of a cheetah and is particularly suitable for running fast, so the Miracinonyx is also called the "American cheetah."

In ancient North America, leopards and pronghorns were like cheetahs and Thomson's gazelles in Africa, loving and killing each other . But at the end of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago, leopards, saber-toothed tigers, mammoths and other animals became extinct, leaving only pronghorns to survive. But some people believe that the body structure of leopards is not as highly adapted to running as cheetahs, and we have not found evidence that pronghorns and leopards prey on each other. The pressure of natural selection is very complex, and it is too simplistic to attribute the speed of pronghorns to a leopard alone.

The worst of cats

The cheetah's fur is tan or golden yellow, slightly lighter on the belly, with many black spots on the body. Some cheetahs have spots on their fur that extend into large stripes of black spots , known as king cheetahs. They were once considered a separate subspecies, but later studies have shown that the parents of the king cheetah may both have normal color types, which is a mutation controlled by a recessive gene. Cheetahs also have a black mutant color type, but it is extremely rare, with only two confirmed individuals.

There are two black "tear marks" on the cheetah's face, which is the cheetah's most iconic feature. Some people believe that the stripes can act as "sunglasses" to reduce the glare of the sun when hunting during the day, but this statement has not been scientifically verified.

Vertical stripes on a king cheetah's back | Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons

Cheetahs give birth to 3 to 6 cubs per litter, with the largest number recorded being 9. Cheetah cubs have a fluffy mane on their backs , and there is a theory that this is to mimic the African tyrant, the honey badger (Mellivora capensis). Honey badgers also have light-colored manes on their backs, and honey badgers have bad tempers and scent glands for self-defense, so ordinary carnivores dare not provoke them. However, this urban legend-like hypothesis lacks basis. When lions, the cheetah's biggest natural enemy, kill cheetah cubs, they are never afraid of this "Mohawk" hairstyle, and it is not difficult for lions to kill honey badgers.

Honey Badger | Jaffacity/Wikimedia Commons

The stripes on the cheetah's back are indeed somewhat similar to those of the honey badger | Pixabay

The fate of cheetah cubs is full of disasters . In the Serengeti, where the density of lions and spotted hyenas is very high, the survival rate is only about 5%, while in areas with fewer lions, the survival rate can reach 30%. Even so, among cats, the survival rate of cheetah cubs is quite low. In fact, cheetahs are truly "bad fighters" among cats. In order to catch gazelles, they have all their limited skill points on speed, and have not developed strength. Most cheetahs prey on small and medium-sized antelopes weighing less than 60 kilograms. Cheetahs living in areas where small ungulates are scarce will also prey on some large prey.

Cheetah snatches Oryx sp. cub, being chased away by adult Oryx sp. | national geographic / youtube

When cheetahs face other large carnivores , such as lions, spotted hyenas or leopards, they often have no choice but to flee. These animals will mercilessly kill cheetahs if they have the chance, probably to eliminate potential competitors in their territory. Studies have also shown that leopards living in some areas are very good at tracking and preying on cheetahs.

Victims of the vanity of the “tycoons”

Cheetahs were once widespread in the Old World, and were found in Asia and Europe . In the past 10,000 years, especially since the rise of human civilization, cheetahs have completely disappeared from Europe. In 100 years, the distribution range of African cheetahs has decreased by nearly 80% , with several larger populations in East Africa, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania, with a total population estimated at around 10,000.

Hunting scene in Rajasthan, India, painted by Edwin Lord Weeks. People use domesticated cheetahs to catch antelopes and other animals. | Wikimedia Commons

In Asia, cheetahs were once distributed in West Asia and South Asia, but in modern times, the cheetah's habitat has shrunk rapidly in the past few decades, and now there is only a very small population of about 100 in a very small area in Iran . Occasionally, there are reports of cheetahs being found in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan, but there is no reliable evidence to confirm their existence. In 2015, a cheetah skin was found in Afghanistan, which was believed to be hunted from the remaining cheetahs there, but this skin was probably trafficked from Iran.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Wildlife Forensics Lab houses a large collection of wild animal pelts, including cheetahs. | US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters / Wikimedia Commons

The factors threatening the survival of cheetahs are mainly the impact of human activities , especially agricultural reclamation and grazing, which have caused the reduction and fragmentation of cheetah habitats. The increase in cultivated land has caused a sharp decline in the number of small and medium-sized antelopes, the main food source of cheetahs. In pastoral areas, although cheetahs do little harm to livestock, especially large livestock such as cattle, herders have already regarded them as pests and hunted them.

Detail of "Yuan Shizu Going Hunting". Painted by Liu Guandao of the Yuan Dynasty. A cheetah imported from a foreign country sits on the horse's back | Wikimedia Commons

Poaching is also an important reason for the decline in cheetah numbers. Some poachers hunt for fur, while many others capture cheetah cubs as pets .

The Middle East has a long-standing tradition of keeping cheetahs as pets, and this bad habit is considered a status symbol. Many wealthy people in white robes are keen on keeping cheetahs as hunting entertainment tools . There are several cheetahs in the palaces of former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, former Iranian King Pahlavi, and Saudi King Salman. Most cheetahs are illegally hunted and smuggled to the Middle East through Somali ports , and the mortality rate of cheetahs during transportation is extremely high. In the Middle East, other wild animals that have also suffered because of vanity include peregrine falcons and hunting falcons (raised as "falcons"), as well as rhinos (rhino horns are made into knife handles and used as precious handicrafts).

Falconry is another luxury that can be very harmful to wildlife populations | Jan Smith / Wikimedia Commons

For me, happiness is lying in the sun and playing with my phone. For a cheetah, perhaps its happiness is to lie in the grass with a full stomach, yawning, and never having to become a victim of others showing off their wealth and status. I hope that in the near future, both the cheetah and I can achieve this little happiness.

Author: Erzhu

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)