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Cheetah [1] Temporal range: Pleistocene - Holocene, 1.9–0 Ma A South African cheetah (A. jubatus jubatus) Conservation status Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1) [2] Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Acinonyx Species: A. jubatus Binomial name Acinonyx jubatus (Schreber, 1775) Subspecies Cheetah From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a big cat in the subfamily Felinae that inhabits most of Africa and parts of Iran. It is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx. The cheetah can run as fast as 109.4 to 120.7 km/h (68.0 to 75.0 mph), faster than any other land animal. [3][4][5][6][7][8] It covers distances up to 500 m (1,640 ft) in short bursts, and can accelerate from 0 to 96 km/h (0 to 60 mph) in three seconds. [9] The cheetah's closest extant relatives are the puma and jaguarundi of the Americas. Cheetahs are notable for adaptations in the paws as they are one of the few felids with only semi-retractable claws. [10] Their main hunting strategy is to trip swift prey such as various antelope species and hares with its dewclaw. Almost every facet of the cheetah's anatomy has evolved to maximise its success in the chase, the result of an evolutionary arms race with its prey. Due to this specialisation, however, the cheetah is poorly equipped to defend itself against other large predators, with speed being its main means of defence. In the wild, the cheetah is a prolific breeder, with up to nine cubs in a litter. The majority of cubs do not survive to adulthood, mainly as a result of depredation from other predators. The rate of cub mortality varies from area to area, from 50% to 75%, [11] and in extreme cases such as the Serengeti ecosystem, up to 90%. Cheetahs are notoriously poor breeders in captivity, though several organizations, such as the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre, have succeeded in breeding high numbers of cubs. The cheetah is listed as vulnerable, facing various threats including loss of habitat and prey; conflict with humans; the illegal pet trade; competition with and predation by other carnivores; and a gene pool with very low variability. It is a charismatic species and many captive cats are "ambassadors" for their species and wildlife conservation in general. Contents 1 Etymology 2 Genetics, evolution, and classification 2.1 Subspecies 3 Characteristics PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓↓

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Page 1: Cheetah - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Cheetah[1]

Temporal range: Pleistocene -

Holocene, 1.9–0 Ma

A South African cheetah (A. jubatus

jubatus)

Conservation status

Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[2]

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Felidae

Genus: Acinonyx

Species: A. jubatus

Binomial name

Acinonyx jubatus(Schreber, 1775)

Subspecies

CheetahFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a big cat in the subfamily Felinae thatinhabits most of Africa and parts of Iran. It is the only extant member ofthe genus Acinonyx. The cheetah can run as fast as 109.4 to 120.7 km/h(68.0 to 75.0 mph), faster than any other land animal.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Itcovers distances up to 500 m (1,640 ft) in short bursts, and canaccelerate from 0 to 96 km/h (0 to 60 mph) in three seconds.[9] Thecheetah's closest extant relatives are the puma and jaguarundi of theAmericas. Cheetahs are notable for adaptations in the paws as they areone of the few felids with only semi-retractable claws.[10]

Their main hunting strategy is to trip swift prey such as various antelopespecies and hares with its dewclaw. Almost every facet of the cheetah'sanatomy has evolved to maximise its success in the chase, the result ofan evolutionary arms race with its prey. Due to this specialisation,however, the cheetah is poorly equipped to defend itself against otherlarge predators, with speed being its main means of defence. In the wild,the cheetah is a prolific breeder, with up to nine cubs in a litter. Themajority of cubs do not survive to adulthood, mainly as a result ofdepredation from other predators. The rate of cub mortality varies fromarea to area, from 50% to 75%,[11] and in extreme cases such as theSerengeti ecosystem, up to 90%. Cheetahs are notoriously poor breedersin captivity, though several organizations, such as the De Wildt Cheetahand Wildlife Centre, have succeeded in breeding high numbers of cubs.

The cheetah is listed as vulnerable, facing various threats including lossof habitat and prey; conflict with humans; the illegal pet trade;competition with and predation by other carnivores; and a gene poolwith very low variability. It is a charismatic species and many captivecats are "ambassadors" for their species and wildlife conservation ingeneral.

Contents

1 Etymology2 Genetics, evolution, and classification

2.1 Subspecies3 Characteristics

PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N↓↓

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A. j. jubatusA. j. raineyiiA. j. soemmeringiiA. j. heckiA. j. venaticus

The range of the cheetah

3.1 Morphs and variations

3.1.1 King cheetah

3.1.2 Other color variations

4 Distribution and habitat5 Ecology and behavior

5.1 Territories

5.1.1 Males

5.1.2 Females

5.2 Vocalizations

5.3 Diet and hunting

5.4 Speed and acceleration

5.5 Enemies and competitors

5.6 Reproduction6 Relationship with humans

6.1 Economic importance

6.2 Taming7 Conservation status

7.1 National Metapopulation Project in South Africa

7.2 Re-introduction project in India

8 In popular culture

9 References

10 Sources

11 Further reading

12 External links

Etymology

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Illustration of Asiatic cheetah(Acinonyx jubatus venaticus)

Exhibit of Sudan cheetah (Acinonyxjubatus soemmeringii)

Subspecies' range.

The word "cheetah" is derived from Hindi 'चीता' (cītā), in turn from Sanskrit citrakāyaḥ, meaning"variegated".[12]

Genetics, evolution, and classificationThe genus name, Acinonyx, means "no-move-claw" in Greek, while thespecies name, jubatus, means "maned" or "crested" in Latin, a referenceto the dorsal crest found in cheetah cubs.[13]

The cheetah has unusually low genetic variability. This is accompaniedby a very low sperm count, motility, and deformed flagella.[14] Skingrafts between unrelated cheetahs illustrate the former point, in thatthere is no rejection of the donor skin, equivalent to them being identicaltwins. It is thought that the species went through a prolonged period ofinbreeding following a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age. Thissuggests that genetic monomorphism did not prevent the cheetah fromflourishing across two continents for thousands of years.[15]

Modern cheetahs of the speciesA. jubatus have existed since theearly Pleistocene epoch. Cheetahfossils have been found in thelower beds of the Olduvai Gorgesite in northern Tanzania, datedto this time period. Older speciesof cheetah like cats (genusAcinonyx) are even older, withthe oldest known from the latePliocene; these fossils are about3 million years old.[16] These now-extinct species include Acinonyxpardinensis (Pliocene epoch), much larger than the modern cheetah and

found in Europe, India, and China; and Acinonyx intermedius (mid-Pleistocene period), found over the samerange. The extinct genus Miracinonyx was extremely cheetah-like, but recent DNA analysis has shown thatMiracinonyx inexpectatus, Miracinonyx studeri, and Miracinonyx trumani (early to late Pleistocene epoch),found in North America and called the "North American cheetah" are not true cheetahs, instead being closerelatives to the cougar.[17] A genome study concluded that Cheetahs originated in North America and spread toAsia and Africa around 100,000 years ago during the late Pleistocene. The result of this first migration alsocaused the first genetic bottleneck in their population when cheetahs became extinct in North America at theend of the last Ice Age. This genetic bottleneck was followed by a second bottleneck between 10-20,000 yearsago, further lowering their genetic diversity.[18]

Subspecies

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Although many sources list six or more subspecies of cheetah, the taxonomic status of most of these subspeciesis unresolved. Acinonyx rex—the king cheetah—was abandoned as a species after it was discovered that thevariation was caused by a single recessive gene. The subspecies Acinonyx jubatus guttatus, the woolly cheetah,may also have been a variation due to a recessive gene. Some of the most commonly recognized subspeciesinclude:[1]

Subspecies of cheetahSubspecies Description Image

South Africancheetah (A. j.jubatus), alsocalled theNamibiancheetah

Lives in Southern Africa where the geographical range has decreasedto 21% of the historic range and now includes Namibia, Botswana,Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia. In 2007, the population wasroughly estimated at less than 5,000 to maximum 6,500 adultindividuals.[19][20] In Namibia, the population has increased fromabout 2,500 in 1990 to 3,500 today.[21] It lives in grasslands,savannahs, arid environments, open fields and mountains, andoccupies a medium size range among surviving subspecies.

Southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia,South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe; extinct inMalawi and Democratic Republic of the Congo[2]

Tanzaniancheetah (A. j.raineyii), alsocommonlyknown as EastAfricancheetah

Is found in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. The totalpopulation in 2007 was estimated at 2,572 adults and independentadolescents.[2] As of 2015, it is estimated that 800 to 1,200 cheetahslive in Kenya, therefore makes the country the main stronghold forthe East African cheetahs.[22] This subspecies lives in savannahs,grasslands, plains and forests. Their largest populations are found atMaasai Mara and at the Serengeti ecosystem where the rate of cheetahcubs' mortality varies up to 90%. Tanzanian cheetahs are the secondmost common subspecies after the most numerous South Africancheetah. It is the tallest and largest subspecies.

Eastern Africa: Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda;[2]

extinct in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo andRwanda

Sudancheetah (A. j.soemmeringii),also known asCentral orNortheastAfricancheetah

Found in the central and northeastern regions of the continent and inthe Horn of Africa. This subspecies was considered identical to theSouth African cheetah until a 2011 genetic analysis demonstratedsignificant differences.[23][24] It is the second-largest of the survivingsubspecies. In 2002, the total population was estimated at around2,000 individuals in the wild.[25]

Northeastern Africa: Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan andSudan; possibly extinct in Djibouti and Eritrea, extinct inEgypt[2]

Central Africa: Chad, Central African Republic, Niger;[26]

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extinct in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo andNigeria[2]

NorthwestAfricancheetah (A. j.hecki), alsoknown as theSaharancheetah

Lives in the northwestern part of Africa. With an estimated totalworld population of only 250 mature individuals, it is listed asCritically Endangered.[2] It is the palest and smallest African cheetahsubspecies.

Northwestern Africa: Algeria, Niger, Togo; possibly extinct inLibya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco; extinct in Tunisia[2]

Western Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso; possibly extinct inNigeria and Senegal; extinct in Ghana[2]

Asiaticcheetah (A. j.venaticus),also known asIranian orIndiancheetah

Found today only in the deserts of Iran, and is thus the only survivingcheetah subspecies indigenous to Asia. It is the most CriticallyEndangered cheetah subspecies, and one of the most endangeredanimals in the world. As of 2015, the wild population is estimated at50 to 70 individuals,[27][28] found mostly in Iran's national parks. It isamong the smallest cheetah subspecies, with a slighter build than theAfrican cheetahs, more fur on the back of the neck, a longer and morepowerful neck, thinner tear marks and a smaller head. It is the onlysubspecies that has a woolly winter coat.

Western Asia: Iran; extinct in Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait,Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates,Yemen[2] and in Turkey.[29]

Central Asia: occurred in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan andUzbekistan but locally extinct since the 1950–80s.[30]

Southern Asia: possibly extinct in Afghanistan and Pakistan,extinct in India.[2]

CharacteristicsThe cheetah's chest is deep and its waist is narrow. The coarse, short fur of the cheetah is tan with round blackspots measuring from 2 to 3 cm (0.79 to 1.18 in) across, affording it some camouflage while hunting. There areno spots on its white underside, but the tail has spots, which merge to form four to six dark rings at the end. Thetail usually ends in a bushy white tuft. The cheetah has a small head with high-set eyes. Black "tear marks"running from the corner of its eyes down the sides of the nose to its mouth keep sunlight out of its eyes and aidin hunting and seeing long distances. Its thin and fragile body make it well-suited to short bursts of high speed,but not to long-distance running.

Agility, rather than raw speed, accounts for much of the cheetah's ability to catch prey. Cheetahs can acceleratefour times as fast as a human (thanks to greater muscle power) and can slow down by 14 kilometers per hour inone stride. They can hunt successfully in densely vegetated areas.[31]

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Cheetah portrait showing the black"tear mark" running from the cornerof the eye down the side of the nose

Cheetah paws showing the blunt,semi-retractable claws

Comparative illustration of a leopard(left) and cheetah (right)

Adult cheetahs are 70 to 90 cm (28 to 35 in) tall at the shoulder. Malesare slightly taller than females and have slightly bigger heads with widerincisors and longer mandibles.[16] Measurements taken of wild cheetahsin Namibia and East Africa indicate that females range in head-and-bodylength from 113 to 140 cm (44 to 55 in) with 59.5 to 73 cm (23.4 to28.7 in) long tails, and weigh between 21 and 63 kg (46 and 139 lb);males range in head-and-body length from 113 to 136 cm (44 to 54 in)with 60 to 84 cm (24 to 33 in) long tails, and weigh between 28.5 and65 kg (63 and 143 lb).[32]

Compared to a similarly sized leopard, the cheetah has generally ashorter body, but a longer tail and is taller. The cheetah's paws havesemi-retractable claws (known only in three other cat species: the fishingcat, the flat-headed cat and the Iriomote cat), offering extra grip in itshigh-speed pursuits. The ligament structure of the cheetah's claws is thesame as those of other cats; it simply lacks the sheath of skin and furpresent in other varieties, and therefore, with the exception of thedewclaw, the claws are always visible. The dewclaw is much shorter andstraighter than that of other cats.

Adaptations that enable the cheetah to run as fast as it does include largenostrils that allow for increased oxygen intake, and an enlarged heartand lungs that work together to circulate oxygen efficiently. During atypical chase, its respiratory rate increases from 60 to 150 breaths perminute.[14] While running, in addition to having good traction due to itssemi-retractable claws, the cheetah uses its tail as a rudder-like means ofsteering[33] to allow it to make sharp turns, necessary to outflank preyanimals that often make such turns to escape.

Unlike true big cats of subfamily Pantherinae, the cheetah can purr as itinhales, but cannot roar. By contrast, the big cats can roar but cannotpurr, except while exhaling. The cheetah is still considered by some tobe the smallest of the big cats. While it is often mistaken for the leopard,the cheetah does have distinguishing features, such as theaforementioned long tear marks that run from the corners of its eyes toits mouth, and spots that are not "rosettes". The thinner body frame ofthe cheetah is also very different from that of the leopard.

The cheetah is a vulnerable species. Of all the big cats, it is the least ableto adapt to new environments. It has always proved difficult to breed in captivity, although recently a few zooshave managed to succeed at this. One technique has been to introduce a dog as a playmate and guard dog toenable a captive cheetah to feel less threatened.[34]

Once widely hunted for its fur, the cheetah now suffers more from the loss of both habitat and prey, conflictwith humans and the illegal pet trade.

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Cheetah skull

A king cheetah showing itsdistinctive coat pattern

The cheetah was formerly considered to be particularly primitive among the cats and to have evolvedapproximately 18 million years ago. However, new research suggests the last common ancestor of all 40existing species of felines lived more recently than about 11 million years ago. The same research indicates thatthe cheetah, while highly derived morphologically, is not of particularly ancient lineage, having separated fromits closest living relatives (Puma concolor, the cougar, and Puma yaguarondi, the jaguarundi) around fivemillion years ago.[17] These felids have not changed appreciably since they first appeared in the fossil record.

Morphs and variations

King cheetah

Some cheetahs have a rare fur pattern mutation of larger, blotchy, merged spots.Known as "king cheetahs", they were once thought to constitute a separatesubspecies but are in fact African cheetahs; their unusual fur pattern is the resultof a single recessive gene.[35] The "king cheetah" has only been seen in the wilda handful of times, but it has been bred in captivity.

The king cheetah is a rare mutation of the cheetah characterized by a distinct furpattern. It was first noted in what was then Southern Rhodesia (modern-dayZimbabwe) in 1926. In 1927, the naturalist Reginald Innes Pocock declared it aseparate species, but reversed this decision in 1939 due to lack of evidence; butin 1928, a skin purchased by Walter Rothschild was found to be intermediate inpattern between the king cheetah and spotted cheetah and Abel Chapmanconsidered it to be a color form of the spotted cheetah. Twenty-two such skinswere found between 1926 and 1974. Since 1927, the king cheetah was reportedfive more times in the wild. Although strangely marked skins had come fromAfrica, a live king cheetah was not photographed until 1974 in South Africa'sKruger National Park. Cryptozoologists Paul and Lena Bottriell photographedone during an expedition in 1975. They also managed to obtain stuffedspecimens. It appeared larger than a spotted cheetah and its fur had a differenttexture. There was another wild sighting in 1986—the first in seven years. By1987, thirty-eight specimens had been recorded, many from pelts.

Its species status was resolved in 1981 when king cheetahs were born at the DeWildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre in South Africa. In May 1981, two spottedsisters gave birth there and each litter contained one king cheetah. The sistershad both mated with a wild-caught male from the Transvaal area (where kingcheetahs had been recorded). Further king cheetahs were later born at theCentre. It has been known to exist in Zimbabwe, Botswana and in the northernpart of South Africa's Transvaal province.

In 2012, the cause of this alternative coat pattern was found to be a mutation in the gene for transmembraneaminopeptidase Q (Taqpep), the same gene responsible for the striped "mackerel" versus blotchy "classic"patterning seen in tabby cats.[36] The mutation is recessive, which is one reason the pattern is so rare.

Other color variations

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A cheetah in the Serengeti savanna

Other rare color morphs of the species include speckles, melanism, albinism, abundism, chocolate, erythrism,strawberry, isabelline, golden, Maltese, chinchilla, black-marked, red-cream marked, ticked, charcoal,mosaicism, leucism, lavender-marked, piebaldism, and flavism. Most have been reported in Indian cheetahs,particularly in captive specimens kept for hunting.

The Mughal Emperor of India, Jahangir, recorded having a white cheetah presented to him in 1608. In thememoirs of Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, the Emperor, says that in the third year of his reign, "Raja Bir Singh Deo broughta white cheetah to show me. Although other sorts of creatures, both birds and beasts have white varieties ... Ihad never seen a white cheetah. Its spots, which are (usually) black, were of a blue color, and the whiteness ofthe body also inclined to bluishness." This suggests a chinchilla mutation, which restricts the amount of pigmenton the hair shaft. Although the spots were formed of black pigment, the less dense pigmentation gives a hazy,grayish effect. As well as Jahangir's white cheetah at Agra, a report of "incipient albinism" has come fromBeaufort West according to Guggisberg.[37]

In a letter to "Nature in East Africa", H. F. Stoneham reported a melanistic cheetah (black with ghost markings)in the Trans-Nzoia District of Kenya in 1925. Vesey Fitzgerald saw a melanistic cheetah in Zambia in thecompany of a spotted cheetah. Red (erythristic) cheetahs have dark tawny spots on a golden background. Cream(isabelline) cheetahs have pale red spots on a pale background. Some desert region cheetahs are unusually pale;probably they are better-camouflaged and therefore better hunters and more likely to breed and pass on theirpaler colouration. Blue (Maltese or grey) cheetahs have variously been described as white cheetahs with grey-blue spots (chinchilla) or pale grey cheetahs with darker grey spots (Maltese mutation). A ticked was shot inTanzania in 1921 (Pocock); it had only a few spots on the neck and back, and these were unusually small.Another ticked cheetah color-morph was photographed in Kenya in 2012.[38]

Distribution and habitatCheetahs inhabit dry and open areas, such as clayey deserts, steppes,savannahs and grasslands, acacia scrubs and light woodland. Mostcheetahs never enter dense forests or thickets except Asiatic cheetahsthat lived in dense forested regions in India. In Africa, cheetahs onceoccurred in these types of habitat from the Mediterranean to the CapePeninsula, and in Asia from the northern Arabian Peninsula eastwards tothe Deccan Plateau and West Bengal in India. Until the first half of the20th century, cheetahs were killed by sport hunters and became scarcethroughout their range. In South Africa they were hunted to almostextermination by the 1930s. In Arabia, there have not been any reliablerecords since the 1950s. The Qattara Depression in Egypt wasconsidered their last refuge by the 1960s. In India, they were declared extinct in 1952.[39]

Since the 1950s, cheetahs were eradicated in at least 13 countries by farmers and trophy hunters. Between 1978and 1994, more than 9,500 cheetahs were killed on Namibian farmlands alone. Today, cheetah populations aresmall and isolated, with viable populations in about half of the countries where cheetahs survive. Theirremaining strongholds are in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia.[40] The remaining population of Asiaticcheetahs survives in fragmented protected areas around the Dasht-e-Kavir in eastern Iran.[41] In 2008, thispopulation was considered very small, comprising less than 50 reproducing individuals.[42]

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Cheetahs in the SerengetiNational Park, Tanzania

Male cheetah marking his territory

Ecology and behaviorUnlike males, females are solitary and tend to avoid each other, though somemother/daughter pairs have been known to be formed for small periods of time.The cheetah has a unique, well-structured social order. Females live alone,except when they are raising cubs and they raise their cubs on their own. Thefirst eighteen months of a cub's life are important; cubs must learn many lessons,because survival depends on knowing how to hunt wild prey species and avoidother predators. At 18 months, the mother leaves the cubs, who then form asibling ("sib") group that will stay together for another six months. At about twoyears, the female siblings leave the group, and the young males remain togetherfor life.

Territories

Males

Males are often social and may group together for life, usually with theirbrothers in the same litter; although if a cub is the only male in the litterthen two or three lone males may form a group, or a lone male may joinan existing group. These groups are called coalitions. In the Serengeti, itwas found that 41% of the adult males were solitary, 40% lived in pairsand 19% lived in trios.[43]

A coalition is six times more likely to obtain an animal territory than alone male, although studies have shown that coalitions keep theirterritories just as long as lone males— between four to four and a halfyears.

Males are territorial. Females' home ranges can be very large and a territory including several females' ranges isimpossible to defend. Instead, males choose the points at which several of the females' home ranges overlap,creating a much smaller space, which can be properly defended against intruders while maximizing the chanceof reproduction. Coalitions will try their best to maintain territories to find females with whom they will mate.The size of the territory also depends on the available resources; depending on the habitat, the size of a male'sterritory can vary greatly from 37 to 160 km2 (14 to 62 sq mi).

Scent is an important means of communication among cheetahs. Males mark their territory by urinating ordefecating on objects that stand out, such as trees, logs, or termite mounds. When male cheetahs urine-marktheir territories, they stand less than one meter away from a tree or rock surface with the tail raised, pointing thepenis either horizontally backward or 60° upward.[44] Male coalitions are able to defend the best territoriesthrough joint scent-marking.[45] Males will attempt to kill any intruders, and fights result in serious injury ordeath.[46][47]

Females

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Female cheetah and cubs

A cheetah suffocating an impala

Unlike males and other felines, females do not establish territories.Instead, the area they live in is termed a home range. These overlap withother females' home ranges, often those of their daughters, mothers, orsisters. Females always hunt alone, although cubs will accompany theirmothers to learn to hunt once they reach the age of five to six weeks.

The size of a home range depends entirely on the availability of prey.Cheetahs in southern African woodlands have ranges as small as 34 km2

(13 sq mi), while in some parts of Namibia they can reach 1,500 km2

(580 sq mi).

Vocalizations

The cheetah cannot roar, but ranks among the more vocal felids. Several sources refer to a wide variety ofcheetah vocalizations, but most of these lack a detailed acoustic description, which makes it difficult to reliablyassess exactly what terms refer to exactly what vocalizations. A short review of the terminology encountered isfound in.[48] Some of the vocalizations listed in the literature are:

Chirping: When a cheetah attempts to find another, or a mother tries to locate her cubs, it uses a high-pitched barking called chirping. The chirps made by a cheetah cub sound more like a bird chirping, and soare termed chirping, too.Churring or stuttering: This vocalization is emitted by a cheetah during social meetings. A churr can beseen as a social invitation to other cheetahs, an expression of interest, uncertainty, or appeasement orduring meetings with the opposite sex (although each sex churrs for different reasons).Growling: This vocalization is often accompanied by hissing and spitting and is exhibited by the cheetahduring annoyance, or when faced with danger.Yowling: This is an escalated version of growling, usually displayed when danger worsens.Agonistic vocalizations: a combination of growls, moans, hisses and the "trademark" cheetah spit, whichis most often accompanied by a forceful "paw hit" on the ground.[48]

Purring: This is made when the cheetah is content, usually during pleasant social meetings (mostlybetween cubs and their mothers). A characteristic of purring is that it is realized on both egressive andingressive airstream, as seen and heard on online video and audio.[49][50][51][52][53][54]

Diet and hunting

Cheetahs are carnivores preferring medium-sized prey with a body massranging from 23 to 56 kg (51 to 123 lb), comprising Thomson's gazelle,impala, blesbok, springbok, Grant's gazelle, reedbuck and duiker. Theycan feed on these species rapidly before kleptoparasites arrive, and therisk of getting injured while hunting them is minimal. When availablethey also prey on steenbok, kudu, waterbuck, bushbuck, hartebeest,nyala, sable antelope, bat-eared fox, roan antelope and oribi. Lessfrequently they prey on ostrich, warthog, wildebeest, gemsbok andzebra.[55] Asiatic cheetahs prey on chinkara, desert hares, Goiteredgazelle, ibex and wild sheep.[56] The blackbuck used to be one of themost favorable preys for the Asiatic cheetahs.

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Three cheetahs at their kill in theSerengeti savanna.

The diet of a cheetah depends on the area in which it lives. For example,on the East African plains, its preferred prey is the Thomson's gazelle(somewhat smaller than the cheetah). In contrast, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, thepreferred prey is the significantly larger nyala, males of which can weighup to 130 kg (290 lb).[57] Cheetahs concentrate on individuals that havestrayed some distance from their group, and do not necessarily seek outold or weak ones. They do, however, opt for young and adolescenttargets, which make up about 50% of the cheetah diet despiteconstituting only a small portion of the prey population.[58]

A Tanzanian cheetah in pursuit of Thomson's gazelle

Cheetahs hunt by vision rather than by scent. They stalk their prey to within 10–30 m (33–98 ft), then chase it.The chase usually lasts less than a minute; if the cheetah fails to make a kill quickly, it will give up. Cheetahshave an average hunting success rate of 40–50%.[14][59] They are diurnal hunters that hunt early in the morningor late in the afternoon when temperature has cooled down. They also hunt on moonlit nights when visibilityallows.[60]

Cheetahs kill their prey by tripping it during the chase, then biting it on the underside of the throat to suffocateit; the cheetah is not strong enough to break the necks of most prey. Rapid deceleration, to enable the cheetah tobite its quarry before the latter can get up and running again, is therefore a crucial component of a successfulhunt.[61] The bite may also puncture a vital artery in the neck. Then the cheetah proceeds to devour its catch asquickly as possible before the kill is taken by stronger predators.

Speed and acceleration

The cheetah is famous for being the fastest land animal.[62] Its hunting success does not, however, depend onraw speed alone, but also on rapid acceleration and deceleration, and an ability to execute drastic changes indirection while moving at speed.[63] Cheetahs can accelerate to 75 km/h (47 mph) within two seconds. Overshort distances, their estimated top speed ranges from 90 to 128 km/h (56 to 80 mph), covering up to 7 m (23 ft)

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A documentary video shot at 1200 fpsdocumenting the movement of Sarahover a set run

with each stride. The highest reliably recorded top speed is 29ms–1, which is about 104 km/h (65 mph).[64] Asthis is an averaged value, a cheetah's maximum speed is presumably still higher.[65]

Data from 367 runs by five wild adult cheetahs, three female and two male, wearing tracking collars yielded atop speed of 93 km/h (58 mph), with an average of 48 to 56 km/h (30 to 35 mph). Speed increased by almost10 km/h (6 mph) in a single stride, while the average distance coveredwas 173 m (568 ft). Maximum run distances ranged from 407 to 559 m(1,335 to 1,834 ft). Given the moderate speeds of many chases, theability to rapidly change direction was likely the crucial characteristicensuring hunting success.[61][66][67]

During the chase phase of a hunt, the body temperature of cheetahsincreases rapidly; chases will not be engaged in if body temperature ishigher than 40.5 °C (104.9 °F).[32] During a 375 m (1,230 ft) sprint, thecheetah's respiratory rate increases from 60 to 150 breaths per minute,while body temperature rises to 40.5 °C, which is 2 °C (3.6 °F) abovenormal.[68] The long-held conception that overheating is the reason for a cheetah abandoning a chase wasundermined by a 2013 study.[59]

Enemies and competitors

Despite their speed and hunting prowess, cheetahs are largely outranked by other large predators in most oftheir range. Because they have evolved for short bursts of extreme speed at the expense of strength, they cannotdefend themselves against most of Africa's other predator species. They usually avoid fighting and willsurrender a kill immediately to even a single hyena, rather than risk injury. Because cheetahs rely primarily ontheir acceleration and manoeuvrability to obtain their meals, any injury that impedes their altering speed anddirection could essentially be life-threatening.

Cheetahs lose around 10 to 15% of their kills to other predators,[58] though it was once thought to be as high as50%.[14] Cheetahs avoid competition by hunting at different times of the day and by eating immediately afterthe kill. Due to the reduction in habitat in Africa, cheetahs in protected areas face greater pressure from otherlarger predators, causing them to live outside of reserves and increasingly coming into conflict with humans.[69]

In Namibia, where the largest population of wild cheetah lives, 90% of these cheetahs live on farmland.

Reproduction

Females reach sexual maturity at the age of 21 to 22 months. Captive cheetahs are receptive for up to 14 daysand have an estrous cycle of 3 to 27 days.[16] Male and female stay together for 2–3 days and mate mostly atnight. Females give birth after a gestation of 90–95 days. In the wild, litter size is seldom more than six cubs,who stay in the lair for about the first eight weeks. Then they accompany their mother on hunts, but are stillnursed up to the age of four months. When cubs leave their mothers and become independent, siblings staytogether for some time.[44]

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A cheetah cub

In the Serengeti, average age of independence of 70 observed litters was 17.1 months. Young females had theirfirst litters at the age of about 2.4 years and subsequent litters about 20 months later. Nearly 50% of cubssurvived to independence from their mothers. Females reached an average age of 6.2 years, and males of 5.3years.[70] A genetic analysis of cheetahs in the Serengeti showed that females are polyandrous. Of 47 litters, 10were sired by two to three males.[71]

Cubs weigh from 250 to 300 g (8.8 to 10.6 oz) at birth. Their nape, shoulders and back is thickly covered withlong bluish grey hair, which is considered to act as camouflage from predators.[44] This downy underlying fur,called a mantle, gives them a mane or Mohawk-type appearance; this furis shed as the cheetah grows older. It has been speculated that this manegives a cheetah cub the appearance of the honey badger, to scare awaypotential aggressors.[72]

Cheetah cub mortality is caused by predation from lions, leopards,spotted hyenas and African wild dogs. Of 125 cubs observed betweenOctober 1987 and September 1990 in the Serengeti National Park, notmore than seven cubs survived to the age of 14 months.[73] This highcub mortality has not been observed in areas where fewer large predatorswere present. In the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, 24 of 67 observedcubs survived to the age of 14 months.[74]

Cheetah cubs often hide in thick brush for safety. Female cheetahs defend their young and are at timessuccessful in driving predators away from their cubs. Coalitions of male cheetahs can also chase away otherpredators, depending on the coalition size and the size and number of the predator. Healthy adult cheetahs havefew enemies since they are able to escape fast.

Relationship with humans

Economic importance

Cheetah fur was formerly regarded as a status symbol. Today, cheetahs have a growing economic importancefor ecotourism and they are also found in zoos. White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida, which maintains asignificant population of cheetahs, has cited that captive management presents challenges because of health,nutrition and socialization of the cats, but that these have been overcome through collaborations among wildlifefacilities.[75]

Cheetahs are far less aggressive than other felids, and in some parts of the world are considered a prestigiouspossession. Cheetah cubs are taken from the wild for the illegal wildlife trade and can be found for sale throughstreet markets and the Internet. However, cheetahs do not breed well in captivity and legal breeding facilities areunable to meet the demand. Thus, the proliferation of wild cheetah taken for the illegal pet trade has thepotential of decimating wild populations. The Cheetah Conservation Fund estimates that hundreds of cheetahcubs are taken from the wild every year to be sold as pets; only about one in six survive.[76]

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A tamed cheetah offered as tribute tothe King of Thebes (1700 B.C.)

Cheetahs living outside of protected areas often inhabit farmland, where they are shot by farmers who believethat they eat livestock. Recent evidence has shown, however, that cheetahs will not attack and eat livestock ifthey can avoid doing so, as they prefer their wild prey.[77] The Cheetah Conservation Fund has designed andimplemented programs to prevent predators' conflict with humans. These programs aim at helping the farmersto protect their livelihoods through education, livelihood development, habitat restoration and predator-friendlyfarming techniques, such as the highly-successful use of livestock guarding dogs.[78]

Taming

Ancient Egyptians often kept cheetahs as pets, and also tamed andtrained them for hunting, although they did not domesticate them.Cheetahs would be taken to hunting fields in low-sided carts or byhorseback, hooded and blindfolded, and kept on leashes while dogsflushed out their prey. When the prey was near enough, the cheetahswould be released and their blindfolds removed. This tradition waspassed on to the ancient Persians and brought to India, where thepractice was continued by Indian princes into the twentieth century.Cheetahs continued to be associated with royalty and elegance, their useas pets spreading just as their hunting skills were. Other such princesand kings kept them as pets, including Genghis Khan and Charlemagne,who boasted of having kept cheetahs within their palace grounds. Akbarthe Great, ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1605, kept as manyas 1,000 cheetahs.[14] As recently as the 1930s, the Emperor of Ethiopia,Haile Selassie, was often photographed leading a cheetah by a leash.

Cheetahs are still tamed in the modern world, much to their detriment as the demand in the illegal pet tradecontinues. However, their tameability has also allowed many registered institutions to educate the public bytraining cheetahs as educational ambassadors. One example is Burmani, who has been raised in England atEagle Heights wild animal park from the age of three months. He was bred in a deer park in Germany. He is sotame that he has lost his hunting instinct.[79]

Conservation statusCheetah cubs have a high mortality rate due to predation by other carnivores, such as the lion and hyena, andperhaps genetic factors. It has been suggested that the low genetic diversity of cheetahs is a cause of poorsperm, birth defects, cramped teeth, kinked tails, and bent limbs. Some biologists even believe that they are tooinbred to flourish as a species.[80] Note, however, that they lost most of their genetic diversity thousands ofyears ago (see the beginning of this article), and yet have only been in decline in the last century or so, from100,000 in the early 1900s to 10,000 today, due to loss of habitat and prey, human-wildlife conflict and theillegal pet trade.[81]

Cheetahs are included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of vulnerable species(African subspecies threatened, Asiatic subspecies in critical situation) as well as on the US Endangered SpeciesAct: threatened species - Appendix I of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). In2014, the CITES Standing Committee recognized cheetahs as a "species of priority' in north-east Africa in their

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A captive Sudan cheetah in ChesterZoo.

The South African cheetah was one ofthe most widespread animals. TwoSouth African cheetahs photographedat southwestern South Africa between1906 and 1918.

strategies to counter wildlife trafficking.[82]

Approximately 10,000 cheetahs remain in the wild in twenty-three African countries; Namibia has the most,with about 3,500. Another 50 to 60 critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs are thought to remain in Iran. Therehave been some successful breeding programs in zoos around the world.Additionally, recent research into improving in vitro fertilisation andembryo culture techniques have the potential of consistently producingembryos for transfer.[83]

Founded in Namibia in 1990, the Cheetah Conservation Fund's missionis to be the world's resource charged with protecting the cheetah and toensure its future. The organization works with all stakeholders within thecheetah's ecosystem to develop best practices in research, education andecology and create a sustainable model from which all other species,including people, will benefit. The Cheetah Conservation Fund has closelinks and assists in training and sharing program successes with othercountries where cheetahs live, including Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania,South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iran and Algeria. The organization's international program includes distributingmaterials, lending resources and support, and providing training through Africa and the rest of the world.

National Metapopulation Project in South Africa

The South African cheetah used to be widespread in several areas ofSouth Africa, until after years of hunting and conflicts, the populationhave dramatically declined and went extinct in multiple regions of thecountry. The species live mostly on the eastern and northern locations ofSouth Africa.

Since the 1960s and onwards, the cheetahs are being reintroduced intheir former ranges. The first known reintroductions were in KwaZuluNatal, Gauteng, Lowveld, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and SouthernKalahari. South African cheetahs have also returned in the Karoo,starting with Samara Private Game Reserve. As of 2013, the cheetahpopulation has increased from between 550 and 850 individuals to over1,300 individuals in South Africa after many conservation efforts for thespecies.

A National Cheetah Metapopulation Project was launched in 2011 by theEndangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).[84] Its purpose is to develop and co-ordinate a national metapopulationmanagement plan for cheetahs in smaller fenced reserves in South Africa. For instance, the cheetahs have beenreintroduced in approx. 50 of these South African reserves. Fragmented subpopulations of South Africancheetahs are currently increasing in a few hundreds.[85]

For the first time after 100 years of extinction since the colonial period, the cheetah has recently beenreintroduced into the Free State in 2013,[86] with two male wild cheetahs that have been relocated from theEastern Cape's Amakhala Game Reserve to the Free State's Laohu Valley Reserve, where the critically

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A male Asiatic cheetah inNortheastern Iran.

Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian, 1523

endangered South China tiger from Save China's Tigers (SCT) are part of a rewilding project in South Africa. Afemale cheetah has yet to be reintroduced to Laohu Valley.[87]

Re-introduction project in India

The Asiatic cheetahs have been known to exist in India for a very longtime, but as a result of hunting and other causes, cheetahs have beenextinct in India since the 1940s. A captive propagation project has beenproposed. Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh told theRajya Sabha on 7 July 2009, "The cheetah is the only animal that hasbeen described extinct in India in the last 100 years. We have to get themfrom abroad to repopulate the species." He was responding to a call forattention from Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."The plan to bring back the cheetah, which fell to indiscriminate huntingand complex factors like a fragile breeding pattern is audacious giventhe problems besetting tiger conservation." Two naturalists, DivyaBhanusinh and MK Ranjit Singh, suggested importing the South Africancheetahs from Namibia, as they can't afford to relocate the critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs from Iran. Theimported Namibian cheetahs will be bred in captivity and, in time, released in the wild in suitable habitats forthe cheetahs.[88]

However, in 2012, the plan to reintroduce the African cheetahs to India has been suspended after discoveringthe distinctness between the cheetahs from Asia and Africa, having been separated between 32,000 to 67,000years ago.[89][90]

In popular cultureIn Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne (1523), the god's chariot is borneby cheetahs (which were used as hunting animals in RenaissanceItaly). Cheetahs were often associated with the god Dionysus,whom the Romans called Bacchus.George Stubbs' Cheetah with Two Indian Attendants and a Stag(1764–1765) also shows the cheetah as a hunting animal andcommemorates the gift of a cheetah to George III by the EnglishGovernor of Madras, Sir George PigotThe Caress (1896), by the Belgian symbolist painter FernandKhnopff (1858–1921), is a representation of the myth of Oedipusand the Sphinx and portrays a creature with a woman's head and acheetah's body (often misidentified as a leopard's).André Mercier's Our Friend Yambo (1961) is a curious biographyof a cheetah adopted by a French couple and brought to live inParis. It is seen as a French answer to Born Free (1960), whoseauthor, Joy Adamson, produced a cheetah biography of her own, The Spotted Sphinx (1969).Hussein, An Entertainment, a novel by Patrick O'Brian set in India of the British Raj period, illustrates thepractice of royalty keeping and training cheetahs to hunt antelopes.The book How It Was with Dooms tells the true story of a family raising an orphaned cheetah cub namedDuma (the Swahili word for cheetah) in Kenya. The films Cheetah (1989) and Duma (2005) were both

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Cheetah with Two Indian Attendantsand a Stag by George Stubbs, 1764–1765

The Caress by Fernand Khnopff, 1887

loosely based on this book.Similarly, Roger Hunt successfully tames a cheetah in Willard Price's Safari Adventure, after rescuing itfrom an elephant pit trap. The cheetah soon befriends a German shepherd dog called Zulu.The animated series ThunderCats had a main character who was an anthropomorphic cheetah namedCheetara.In 1986, Frito-Lay introduced an anthropomorphic cheetah, Chester Cheetah, as the mascot for theirCheetos.Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle has a subplot involving anescaped cheetah, which later smokes cannabis with the pair andallows them to ride it.Comic book superheroine Wonder Woman's chief adversary is Dr.Barbara Ann Minerva, alias The Cheetah.On the CGI animated show Beast Wars: Transformers, Cheetor,one of the main characters on the Maximal faction, had the beastform of a cheetah. This was also carried over as the beast form ofthe Cheetor Hasbro transformer.The Japanese anime Damekko Dōbutsu features a clumsy butsweet-natured cheetah named Chiiko.The first release of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X was code-named"Cheetah", which set the pattern for the subsequent releases beingnamed after big cats.In Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light the characterWitterquick as the totem of a Cheetah and could turn into one.Titled "Hunting at 60 mph", the PlayStation 3 game Afrikafeatures a Cheetah hunting a gazelle as the game's first "big gamehunt".

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Seventh-Seventeenth Centuries". In Victor H. Mair, ed., Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World, pp. 116–135. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2884-4.

Eklund, Robert and Gustav Peters. 2013. "A comparative acoustic analysis of purring in juvenile, subadult and adultcheetahs" (http://roberteklund.info/pdf/Eklund_Peters_2013_Cheetah_Purring.pdf). in Robert Eklund(http://roberteklund.info) (editor.), Proceedings of Fonetik 2013, the XXVIth Swedish Phonetics Conference,Studies in Language and Culture, no. 21, ISBN 978-91-7519-582-7, ISBN 978-91-7519-579-7, ISSN 1403-2570(https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:1403-2570), pp. 25–28.

Eklund, Robert, Gustav Peters and Elizabeth D. Duthie. 2010 (third edition). "An acoustic analysis of purring in thecheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and in the domestic cat (Felis catus)". Proceedings of Fonetik 2010, Lund University,2–4 June 2010, Lund, Sweden, pp. 17–22. Download from [1] (http://purring.org) or [2](http://roberteklund.info).

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Scott, Jonathan; Scott, Angela (2005). Cheetah (Big Cat Diary). HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-714920-4.Sharp, N. C. C. (1997). "Timed running speed of a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)". Journal of Zoology Volume 241 (3): 493–

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Wikimedia Commons hasmedia related to Acinonyxjubatus.

Wikispecies has informationrelated to: Acinonyxjubatus

Further readingCaro, T. M. (1994). Cheetahs of the Serengeti Plains: group living in an asocial species. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-09433-2.Great Cats, Majestic Creatures of the Wild, ed. John Seidensticker, illus. Frank Knight, (Rodale Press,1991), ISBN 0-87857-965-6Cheetah, Katherine (or Kathrine) and Karl Ammann, Arco Pub, (1985), ISBN 0-668-06259-2.Science (vol 311, p. 73)

External linksSpecies portrait Cheetah; IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group(http://www.catsg.org/index.php?id=107)Cheetah (http://www.eol.org/pages/328680) at the Encyclopediaof LifeBiodiversity Heritage Library bibliography(http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/name/Acinonyx_jubatus) forAcinonyx jubatusCheetah Conservation Fund (http://www.cheetah.org/)Save China's Tigers to Fund Wild Cat Conservation Worldwide(http://english.savechinastigers.org/node/487)De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust (http://www.dewildt.org.za)On the Chase With Cheetahs (http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/35612/on-the-chase-with-cheetahs) - slideshow by Life magazineFake Flies and Cheating Cheetahs (http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/gmis9911.htm): measuringthe speed of a cheetah

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Mutant Cheetahs (http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/mutant-cheetahs.html): information on colorvariants of cheetahs

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Categories: IUCN Red List vulnerable species Acinonyx Animals described in 1775Carnivorans of Africa Fauna of Southern Africa Fauna of East Africa Fauna of the SaharaMammals of Africa Mammals of Asia Mammals of Western Sahara Megafauna of AfricaPleistocene first appearances

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