Cheetahs are known for their speed, reaching 60mph in just 3 seconds!
Look closely and you’ll see why they can run at such high speeds. A cheetah has very lean muscles, slender legs and an athletic, flexible spine. Their wide nostrils allow them to breathe in lots of oxygen when running, and their lungs and hearts are built to cope with all of that extra oxygen.
But cheetahs don’t run flat out for long, they only do it to catch prey. And afterwards it takes 20 minutes for their breathing and body temperature to get back to normal.
Cheetahs mate throughout the year and, after a 3 month pregnancy, mothers give birth to 2 to 4
kittens. Every few days, a mother will move her babies to a new hiding place to protect them from
hungry predators. At about 6 weeks, the new arrivals start to follow their mother and eat from her
kills.
Human-wildlife conflict is a BIG problem for cheetahs
They have less land to roam and prey to eat because of the human population EXPANDING and changing land for agriculture. This fragments and DESTROYS cheetah habitat.
Farmers blame cheetahs for killing their livestock and game. They hunt, trap and shoot cheetahs to try and protect their animals.
We donated GPS collars to the N/a’an ku sê Foundation in Namibia. The collars track the movement and behaviour of Southern cheetahs. They found that cheetahs actually hardly ever kill livestock.
Now farmers get regular information from the GPS collars telling them where the cheetahs are. This means they can protect their livestock without harming cheetahs.
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