Menu
Cheetah
Habitat:
Description:
Physical Adaptations:
Behavioral Adaptations:
Diet:
Instincts:
Learned Behaviors:
- The cheetah lives in the dry hot savannas of Africa. They like dry, open grasslands where they can pick up speed to kill prey.
Description:
- Cheetahs are big cats.
- These graceful animals are identified by their unique black spots on gold or yellow coats.
- The cheetah can grow to be 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 feet tall.
- The cheetah can weigh between 77 to 143 pounds.
- The cheetah has a slender, long-legged body with blunt, semi-retractable claws.
- Its coat is tan with about 2,000 small, round, black spots, and the fur is coarse and short.
- The cheetah has a small head with high-set eyes.
- Black "tear marks", which run from the corner of its eyes down the sides of the nose to its mouth, keep the sun out of its eyes and aid in hunting.
Physical Adaptations:
- One physical adaptation of the cheetah is long. strong muscular legs. These strong legs allow the cheetah to run really fast. It can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3 seconds.
- Another physical adaptation of the cheetah is its great eyesight to see prey from far away.
- The spots on the cheetah are a form of camouflage. They help the cheetah blend in with the tall grass so they can hide from their predators or sneak up on their prey.
- The sharp teeth of the the cheetah help it to capture and eat its prey. Its sharp teeth are made to tear meat.
- The cheetah has an extra-large heart, nostrils and lungs that help the cat process more oxygen while running.
- Cheetahs have sharp claws. These sharp claws help them catch their prey. The sharp claws also help them to run fast because they dig into the ground.
- Its flat tail helps to balance its body while it is running.
Behavioral Adaptations:
- A behavioral adaptation of the cheetah is that it moves quietly in the tall grass to creep up on their pray.
- Another behavioral adaptation of the cheetah is they drag there prey into a hiding place so they can eat without any other animals trying to steal it.
- Baby cheetahs stay close to the mother when young to avoid predators.
- The mother cheetah hides cubs in holes or bushes while she gathers food for the young.
- Male cheetahs travel in groups, while the female always travels alone.
- Cheetahs are fast runners. This helps them catch their prey and escape predators.
- Cheetahs hide in the shade to help them cool down.
- The cheetah hunts during the day.
- When it comes to fighting or defending land and food against lions, hyenas and other large predators, cheetahs often use avoidance as their main tactic. Most of the time, if a cheetah can avoid a confrontation with another large predator then it will.
- In the wild, cheetah moms will give birth in a nest they have made in tall grass, or somewhere safe where the cubs can be hidden really well.
Diet:
- Cheetahs are carnivores which mean they eat meat. Their main diet consist of antelope, gazelles, young wildebeest, rabbits, warthogs, and birds
- Cheetahs are well adapted to an arid climate. They only need to drink once every three to four days.
Instincts:
- Baby cheetahs are born knowing how to drink their mother's milk.
- Baby cheetahs are born knowing how to make sounds.
Learned Behaviors:
- Baby cheetahs watch their mother to learn how to hunt and survive.
- The cubs play time of stalking, chasing and wrestling each other is really helping them learn how to be good hunters.
- As the cubs grow, the mother teaches them how to hunt and other essentials. Cubs will stay with their mothers for one and a half to two years.
- Females raise cubs on their own, teaching them survival skills: how to hunt wild prey and avoid other predators, such as lions, leopards and hyenas.