They can accelerate from 0 to 68 miles per hour in just three seconds. The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world, reaching speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. Males however, live in small family groups of 2–3 brothers, known as coalitions. Are cheetahs solitary?įemale cheetahs are solitary, living alone or with their young. How often do cheetahs drink?Ĭheetahs have evolved to live in an environment where water is scarce, and can survive on one drink every three to four days. Cheetahs will also feed on wildebeest calves and, occasionally, smaller animals including rabbits, hares and birds. Their diet is made up primarily of smaller antelopes including springbok, steenbok, Thomson’s gazelle, impalas, and duiker. What do cheetahs eat?Ĭheetahs are carnivores, so rely on meat for survival. Previously, cheetahs were wide-spread across African and Asian continents, but now they are confined mostly to dry open grasslands of Sub-Saharan Africa, with the majority inhabiting natural reserves or parks. How many spots do cheetahs have?Ĭheetahs have between 2,000 and 3,000 spots, which help them to camouflage themselves. Black tear-shaped streaks on the face help to reflect the sun when hunting. They have coarse, short fur that is yellowish tan in colour and covered in solid black spots. The study was financed by the Messerli Foundation Switzerland.Built for speed, cheetahs are slender, with long thin legs and a long tail. Breeding facilities therefore should preferably use young females and females that bred at a young age because older females without a breeding history are likely to be infertile or have difficulties to reproduce. She suspects that their findings are likely to be of relevance also for other mammals. "The findings will be of particular value if the decreasing cheetah population needs to be restocked with individuals bred in captivity," says Wachter. In contrast, early reproduction activates the reproductive system and protects fertility. When, for instance, reproduction of animals in zoos is delayed, it may fail for good because the processes and organs required for reproduction are impaired. "The results confirm previous findings from elephants and rhinos," says Hermes. As a result, these animals often become infertile at a young age. This can compromise the internal reproductive organs and more rapidly deplete egg cells. In contrast, animals prevented from reproducing are exposed to cycles of fluctuating estrogen concentrations. Estrogen-driven maturation of egg cells therefore rarely occurs under natural conditions. Under natural conditions, animals usually start reproducing soon after reaching reproductive maturity and conceive again shortly after weaning a litter. The scientists conclude that normal reproductive behaviour in young adults is a prerequisite for life-long fertility in cheetahs. They found that the adrenal glands appeared to be normal and levels of stress of the two studied groups were identical. The scientists also compared the stress levels of free-ranging and captive cheetahs by measuring of the size of the adrenal glands because stress has been suggested to be one potential reason why captive cheetahs rarely reproduce. Most of the captive females did not show any evidence of a functioning cycle and their internal reproductive organs started to show pathologic changes from the age of four years. Captive cheetahs in Namibia usually live in large enclosures under conditions that are similar to those of free-ranging cheetahs except that they do not reproduce because they are prevented to do so by Namibian law. The situation looked very different in captive cheetah females. All females cycled, were in estrous, pregnant or lactating," says Dr Robert Hermes from the IZW. Our high-resolution ultrasound examinations revealed that the internal reproductive organs of free-ranging cheetah females are very healthy. To achieve this, they investigated whether cheetah females had normal reproductive cycles and examined the condition of their internal reproductive organs. The IZW scientists studied whether the reproductive problems that were thought to hamper cheetahs affected the Namibian population of this species. "In contrast to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania where almost 80 percent of cheetah cubs are killed by lions and hyenas, the majority of young cheetahs in Namibia reach adulthood," explains Dr Bettina Wachter from the IZW. Although some farmers persecute and eliminate cheetahs, the cheetahs' main predators, lions and hyenas, are absent. The world's largest population of cheetahs inhabits Namibian farmland.
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