Cheetah

Cheetahs eat meat.

They chase small antelopes, like gazelles and impalas. Cheetahs eat fast. Bigger animals like lions may take their food away.

Cheetahs are carnivores. They mostly catch small antelopes such as gazelles, impalas, springbok and duikers, plus the young of bigger animals like warthogs and kudu.

A cheetah sneaks to within about 90 meters of its prey, then bursts into a sprint that lasts about 20 seconds. After a catch, it eats quickly. Lions, hyenas and even groups of vultures can chase a cheetah off its meal, and the cheetah is too light to fight back.

Prey are mainly small and medium antelopes, including springbok, steenbok, duikers, impala and gazelles, and the young of larger ungulates such as warthog, kudu, hartebeest, oryx, roan and sable. Cheetahs stalk to within about 90 meters before the final acceleration; full sprints last about 20 seconds.

The sprint leaves the cat exhausted, and its large nostrils and lungs help it recover while it holds the prey by the throat. Kleptoparasitism, the stealing of kills, is a major cost: lions, hyenas and vulture flocks can drive cheetahs away, so they eat fast and leave bones and entrails behind. Because they are easily overpowered, cheetahs tend to flee rather than fight.

Cheetah brothers often stay together all their lives.

Cheetahs do not roar. They chirp like a bird! A mother cheetah chirps to call her cubs.

Grown female cheetahs live alone, except when they have cubs, and they raise their cubs by themselves. Brothers are different: young males often stay together for life in a small group called a coalition, usually two or three littermates. A coalition shares a territory near water, where herds of gazelles come to drink.

Cheetahs cannot roar. Instead they purr, growl, hiss and chirp. A loud chirp sounds a bit like a bird or a puppy's yelp and can be heard over a kilometer away.

Cheetah social life differs by sex. Adult females are solitary and often occupy ranges overlapping their mother's, interacting with males only to breed. Males frequently live in lifelong coalitions, usually of two or three littermates, that hold a territory covering several female ranges, often near water that attracts prey herds.

Cheetahs do not roar; their calls include purrs, barks, growls, hisses, a pigeon-like stutter that mothers use to tell cubs to stay or follow, and the chirp, their most common call, which can carry about 1.6 kilometers. A 2001 study at the Smithsonian's National Zoo found that chirps differ between individuals, suggesting cheetahs may recognize each other by voice.

There are not many wild cheetahs left.

People are working to help them. Some farmers find ways to keep their animals safe without hurting cheetahs.

Cheetahs are Vulnerable. The IUCN estimates there are only about 6,500 adult cheetahs left in the wild. They need huge areas of land, and as farms and towns spread, their homes are cut into small pieces. Some cheetahs are killed by farmers who are worried about their goats and cattle.

In Iran, the last Asiatic cheetahs are critically endangered. Wildlife parks give cheetahs room to roam, and groups such as the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Action for Cheetahs in Kenya help cheetahs and the people who raise livestock share the land.

The IUCN Red List assessed the cheetah as Vulnerable in 2021, with about 6,517 mature individuals, a decreasing trend and a severely fragmented population. Cheetahs live at low densities and range widely, so much of the remaining population lives outside protected areas, where habitat loss, the loss of wild prey and retaliatory killing over livestock are the main pressures.

The Asiatic population in Iran is critically endangered. The IUCN estimates that only about 31 to 40 percent of cheetahs live in protected areas, so their future depends on protected areas large enough for wide-ranging cats and on reducing conflict with ranchers outside them.