A cheetah has a trunk length of 1 m to 1.5 m, a tail length of 0.6 m to 0.8 m, a shoulder height of 0.7 m to 0.9 m, and a weight of 35 to 72 kg. The male cheetah is slightly bigger than the female cheetah, and the color of the cheetah's back is light yellow. Its abdomen is light in color, usually white. It is covered with black spots, and there is a black stripe from the corner of the mouth to the corner of the eye. This stripe is a feature that we use to distinguish cheetahs from leopards.
A single species of the genus Carnivora. It looks like a leopard, but thinner than a leopard, with slender limbs and straight toes and claws. Unlike a cat, it can retract all its claws. The head is small and round; The whole body is colorless and yellowish, with many small black spots. Now it is distributed in Africa.
Living in dry areas with jungles or sparse forests, they usually live alone and mate only in mating season, and there are also groups of 4-5 cubs led by female leopards. Cheetah is the fastest mammal, with a speed of 120 km/h. Feeding on small and medium-sized animals such as antelopes. In addition to high-speed pursuit, ambush is also used to hide in grass or bushes and suddenly jump out to hunt when prey approaches. The mother leopard 1 gave birth to 2 ~ 5 cubs. The service life is about 15 years.
Cheetahs are fierce and aggressive, but easy to domesticate. It was used to help hunting in ancient times. Cheetah once had a wide distribution area, from the African continent to South Asian countries. Due to long-term indiscriminate hunting, India, the Soviet Union, Central Asia and other places have become extinct, especially in southwest Africa.
Cheetah is the king of sprint in the animal kingdom. It is measured that an adult cheetah can reach 100 km/h in a few seconds. However, this does not guarantee that they are foolproof in hunting. You should know that the God of Nature is fair. Although it gives them unparalleled speed, it doesn't give them endurance at the same time. If the cheetah can't catch its prey in a short distance, it will give up and wait for the next attack.
Cheetahs don't look much like their other distant relatives, cats. Their heads are relatively small, and there is an obvious black stripe on both sides of their noses, which extends from the corner of their eyes to their mouths, like two tears. They are slender, with a body length of about 140 ~ 220cm and a height of about 75 ~ 85cm. They also have long limbs and a long tail. Cheetah's hair is light gold, dotted with black round spots, and there is mane-like hair on its back (some kinds of cheetahs have obvious dark manes on their backs, but the spots on their bodies are large like short stripes, so this cheetah is called "cheetah king". King cheetah was once considered as an independent subspecies, but it was later discovered that their unique and beautiful patterns were only the product of genetic mutation. Cheetahs' claws are somewhat similar to dogs' claws, because they can't completely retract their claws into the meat pad like other cats, only half of them can be retracted.
Because the genes between cheetahs are highly purified, the skin between distant relatives can be transplanted at will without rejection. It is also difficult to classify the subspecies of cheetahs. Protein analysis of cheetah blood shows that the differences between different cheetahs are very subtle, so the classification of cheetah subspecies has been controversial. At present, this site only lists 5 kinds.
Cheetahs are mainly distributed in Africa and once lived in India in Asia. The cheetah in India is also called cheetah (extinct). Cheetah is the fastest animal on land, with an hourly speed of 1.20 km and an amazing acceleration. It only takes 4 seconds from the start to the maximum speed. But the endurance is not good, and it is impossible to chase prey for a long time. Cheetah's prey is mainly small and medium-sized ungulates such as Thomson gazelle and wildebeest. Cheetah's body has become slender in order to adapt to high-speed chase, and its claws can't stretch and contract at will like other cats, so it can't compete with other large predators such as lions and hyenas, and their hard-earned prey is often taken away by them. Masai people in Africa are also not very friendly to cheetahs. Masai are nomadic people. They won't kill wild animals at will, because they think only their own animals are suitable for eating. But they will take away the cheetah's prey with spears, not to eat, but to feed the dogs, so that they can save food for the dogs. The poor cheetah can only hunt again, but the consequence of high-speed hunting is high energy consumption. If a cheetah fails to hunt five times in a row or its prey is taken away, it may starve to death because it has no strength to hunt any more. The survival rate of cubs is very low. Two-thirds of the cubs were killed by lions, hyenas, etc. before they were one year old, or starved to death due to lack of food.
Cheetah's tail, one third of its tail, has a black ring pattern. The hair on the back neck is very long, like a short mane. Generally speaking, it has a slender figure, long legs, small head, short ears and round pupils. Because cheetahs have this streamlined body shape, they look light when they run. In addition, the cheetah's spine is very soft. Whether standing or running, the outline of its body looks like a bronze work, so some media listed the cheetah's back and hip curve as a natural heritage. How did the cheetah come from? As we all know, every species evolved from other species.
The oldest cheetah fossils in the world were found in Texas, Nevada and Wyoming in North America. At that time, cheetahs lived about ten thousand years ago. At that time, the world was the last ice age on earth. The so-called ice age cooled the earth's climate. At both ends of the earth, there are large areas of glaciers at both ends of the north and south poles, which is called the ice age. At that time, cheetahs were also widely distributed in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. When climate change caused a large number of animal deaths during the Ice Age, cheetahs in Europe and North America and cheetahs in parts of Asia and Africa became extinct.
How long can cheetahs live? People use radio collars to find that the life span of wild cheetahs is generally 6.9 years. However, cheetahs may live for 1 1.7 years in captivity. The so-called radio tracking technology is to put a radio transmitter around the animal's neck, and then according to the radio transmitter, one is to mark the animal and the other is to track the animal's activity range. If the life span of animals is quite long, some radio transmitters can study their life span.
In the animal kingdom, the systematic classification and positioning of cheetahs are as follows: they belong to Chordata phylum and Mammalia phylum, that is, they belong to mammals. It belongs to Carnivora and also belongs to a carnivore. Cats, cheetahs and cheetahs are its species. It has two subspecies, one is African subspecies and the other is Asian subspecies. There are many African subspecies, ranging from 9,000 to 12,000. There are fewer Asian subspecies, mainly living in Iran, and there are still about 300. According to biomolecular research, cheetahs, jaguars and golden cats appeared on the earth about 5.5 million years ago. Lions, tigers and cougars only appeared about1600 thousand years ago. Generally speaking, cheetahs can't climb trees. Unlike leopards, leopards can climb trees. Cheetahs are not good at rock climbing because their claws are born outside, so they generally don't climb trees, at most they are fallen wood. So in Africa, sometimes I see some cats, just like cheetahs. If they rest in a tree or wait for their prey, they will think they are cheetahs, but they are not. They are leopards. An American scientist named Stephen studied the population structure of many wild animals. He found that the cheetahs in the world today are all relatively close individuals, which means that these cheetahs are the offspring of some relatively close individuals. Because they are the offspring of inbreeding, their genetic structure is very similar, that is, their genetic composition is very similar, at least like twins. There is a related problem. Generally speaking, people especially want to preserve more genetic diversity and hope that the genetic results of a species are more different. A species like cheetah has a very small genetic structure. But it can survive in the wild and has no symptoms at present. It shows that this species has not declined because of inbreeding, so this is a very strange phenomenon. Generally speaking, if a species is composed of highly inbreeding individuals, its viability is very weak.
Cheetah is relatively easy to domesticate and raise. The earliest record of domestication in the world is the Semu people, who first started to domesticate cheetahs. Kyle Poirot once noticed that his travels left some interesting records. He once noticed that even outside the distribution area of cheetahs, many orientals keep cheetahs as pets. People regard cheetahs as hounds, monsters and even mounts. In ancient Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, the Egyptian royal family liked cats, especially cheetahs. They raise cheetahs to hunt them, but the breeding rate of cheetahs raised artificially is generally low. For example, there was once a Mongolian empire in India, and an emperor named Abac built a zoo with thousands of cheetahs in it. According to the records at that time, only one cheetah successfully bred offspring. Although cheetahs are easy to raise, people can train cheetahs to fetch things and hunt. But in general, cheetahs are still difficult to feed because they are very active. Another word, because it has no fixed nest. Therefore, people can only use cheetahs to hunt prey. It is usually the hunter who covers the cheetah and takes it to the hunting place to preserve its physical strength. Then, when the prey is found at the scene, immediately take off the cheetah's hood, and then let the cheetah chase the prey. When cheetahs catch prey, hunters usually let cheetahs share a small part of their prey or let them eat their own blood.
Cheetahs live a regular life, usually at sunrise and at sunset. Usually go out for food around five o'clock in the morning. When it walks, it is more alert. It stops from time to time and looks around to see if there are any prey to prey on. On the other hand, it also prevents other wild animals from preying. Usually rest at noon. During the nap, it gets up every 6 minutes, so it has to get up and have a look to see what dangers are around it. Generally speaking, cheetahs only kill one prey at a time, and the distance they walk every day is about five kilometers, at most ten kilometers. Although it is good at running, it can't walk far. Cheetah is the fastest running animal on land in the world at present, and its speed can reach112km per hour. If the human sprint world champion and the cheetah run a 100-meter race, the cheetah can let the world champion run 60 meters first, and the cheetah will finally reach the finish line instead of the sprint world champion. Why does it run so fast? It is related to its body structure. One is that its legs are long and its body is thin. Another cheetah's spine is soft and easy to bend, like a big spring. Even when it is running, you can see that its forelimbs and hind limbs are exerting strength, and its body is falling in the middle of running, so it runs very fast. Cheetahs need to turn sharply when running, and their big tails play a balance role. That is, when turning, the tail is balanced so that it won't fall off. Because in nature, people give an image example, just like our human arm race, if you run fast, I will run faster. Or if you want to arrest me, I must escape, or I may be wiped out after being eaten by you. So if the predator runs fast, the prey must run faster, or there are other ways. Generally speaking, because cheetah runs fast, other animals can't outrun it, so they have to do their best. If you are like an antelope, it usually turns sharply and keeps turning sharply. Because if it runs straight, it can't run. So it has to run a few steps and turn, so the cheetah has to keep turning. At this time, cheetahs should keep their balance. If it doesn't fall, it must rely on its big tail to keep its balance.
However, it should be noted that since the cheetah runs so fast, it is a test for its respiratory system and circulatory system. When its running speed reaches more than 1 10 km, its respiratory system and circulatory system are overloaded. As we all know, when animals exercise, they produce a lot of heat in their bodies. Animals must get rid of this heat, just like humans, they sweat or pant a lot when running. On the one hand, oxygen is inhaled, on the other hand, part of heat is discharged through exhaust, and part of heat is discharged through perspiration. Because the cheetah can't get rid of the accumulated heat at once, it is prone to collapse symptoms, so the cheetah can only sprint a few hundred meters, and it slows down. Otherwise it will overheat and then collapse. So this kind of running is very exhausting. Sometimes cheetahs catch prey, because they just run too fast, so they can't eat it at that time. It needs to rest or catch its breath before it starts eating. This time is the most vulnerable time for a cheetah, probably because its prey is likely to be taken away by nearby lions or leopards, and even it is worried about its own life. If lions are too hungry, or a group of lions have not eaten for a long time, then those lions may take cheetahs as prey.
Cheetahs have sharp teeth, but compared with other big cats, cheetahs have smaller teeth. This is what we talked about before. Cheetah's head is smaller. If the cheetah's head is small, its upper jaw is small, so it can't grow long roots. In addition, its teeth can't become very long. As we all know, if a tooth is very long, it takes a very long root to break it. If the root of the tooth is short and the exposed part of the tooth is long, it is easy to break when biting. Therefore, cheetahs have smaller teeth. So the whole cheetah's body structure seems to be designed for the characteristics of fast running, which is designed by the designer nature. We call it survival competition because natural selection forced it to become like this, and it was designed to run faster. We say that a long time ago, that is, 10 thousand years ago, its ancestors were still huge, but those ancestors died out because they didn't adapt to the environment. These cheetahs that are left behind now, they all run very fast, and their body structure has also undergone great variation. Because running consumes a lot of oxygen, in order to absorb more oxygen, cheetahs have large nasal cavities. Therefore, there is not much room in its skull to grow roots, so its teeth are shorter. If its teeth are short, it is well known that carnivores fight with their claws and teeth, so this affects its fighting ability.
In nature, cheetahs are often defeated by some big cats, such as lions, and may even be killed and eaten by lions. Because cheetahs have short teeth, cheetahs sometimes can't kill food with their teeth. Often relying on the chin is like a pliers to clamp the neck of the prey and suffocate the prey. Cheetahs usually hunt like this: although they run fast, they try to get closer to their prey step by step because of the limited distance they run. Try not to let the prey find out. When it is close enough, it will suddenly jump out and pounce on its prey. At this time, the prey is caught by speed. If it doesn't catch it the first time, its prey probably won't catch it. Because the prey runs fast, like an antelope. Another is to be good at avoiding, keep turning sharply, and may avoid it. So when a cheetah catches an animal, it will jump out, and if the animal comes near, it will try to extend its claws. So its claws are always exposed, and its claws try to catch the hind limbs of its prey, hoping to catch it. Then jump on it and bite its neck to subdue its prey. Generally speaking, large prey will die after a cheetah bites its prey's neck for five to ten minutes. After the prey dies, cheetahs will drag the bodies of those prey to the middle of the jungle to eat.
Speaking of cheetahs, we can compare leopards, which are very similar to cheetahs. We can see that they are very similar in size, and it is difficult to distinguish them even from a distance. Unlike cheetahs, leopards like to climb trees. They like to climb trees to rest and sleep, or lie in ambush among branches to catch prey. Leopards often hunt at night. When a leopard comes down from a tree, it can pounce on its prey and rarely misses. So most of the time, the leopards we usually see stay in trees, and are usually hunted, just like antelopes, which are not easy to see. It's easy to find prey, and once it passes under the tree, it will pounce. When a leopard catches prey, it is different from a cheetah. It likes to drag its prey to trees. Hide the prey among branches and eat it slowly. It does this to prevent hyenas or lions from stealing its food. It is true that in nature, although the cheetah runs very fast, it often fails to catch the antelope and the animals it wants to prey on. Why is this? As we said before, the cheetah runs fast, but its distance is very limited, that is to say, it can only run a few hundred meters. Antelope is slower than cheetah, but it is also fast, even if it runs once an hour, it can reach about 90 kilometers. So once the antelope meets the cheetah, one of them runs in a hurry, and then turns around after running in a hurry. Another method is to use hills, grasslands or jungles as a cover to make a tortuous progress. So that the cheetah can't play its specialty of fast running, and then let the prey try to catch the air. This is the arms race in nature, that is, predators are fast, so prey must run faster. Than prey, or endurance, or escape by deception. Otherwise, some species in the world will become extinct. For a cheetah, its own survival will be in danger, because the antelope it eats has become extinct. Therefore, nature, the creator, will not easily make a species extinct, so every species will have a chance to survive. You may have seen some lively scenes that often happen on African grasslands. Some big cats, such as leopards, lions and cheetahs, hunt some prey, such as antelopes and wildebeests. This is actually a dynamic and energetic process. Because of what? It is an integral part of the evolution of nature, and some of them are weak, old and even sick individuals, which are eaten by these wild animals. And these preserved individuals are generally healthy and strong individuals. They may have escaped the predation of these beasts, so this is an organic link in the biological chain of nature. Cheetah's social behavior is similar to that of other animals, and they live in the same sex group. The so-called same sex means that same-sex individuals stay together. In the wild cheetah group, it is generally divided into male individual groups, namely bachelor group and female group. There is also a mother-child group. In addition to the breeding season, males usually live alone, or two or three males stay together, not with females. But the fields of these male individuals may overlap with the fields of several groups of female individuals, who are individuals who stay with males during the breeding season. Once the breeding season is over, pregnant females will form a separate group and wander in the wild. They hunt by themselves, then give birth to cubs, and they will move with them. Start breastfeeding, and then act together. Tell the bears how to hunt. When the male cubs grow up, these male cubs will slowly leave the female group and start their own lives. Or several males stay together, finally establish their own territory, and then carry out their own breeding period, which is a life cycle of them.