Morphology and physiologY

The cheetah has evolved for speed. It has long and thin but powerful and muscled legs, a long tail to balancing its body during the sharp movements of the chase, hard threaded pads with semi-retractable claws to ensure grip to the ground, a deep chest, a short snout and enlarged nostrils, all built to maximize oxygen intake. This benefit however, comes with the cost of smaller canines and their bite is not as powerful as expected for a carnivore of this size. With their gracile body shape they are vulnerable to interspecific competition with other carnivores, often losing their kills to other species such as lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, brown hyenas and wild dogs, but also to vultures and black-backed jackals.

Cheetahs are the fasted terrestrial mammal species and have a characteristic hunting behaviour. They normally start a hunt by stalking their prey and approach it to 60 m to 70 m, before they break into a sprint. The sprint last only approximately 200 m to 400 m, reaching a speed up to 93 km/h. However, cheetahs lack of stamina and their hunting success depend of capturing the prey within this short distance. Once they have captured a prey, they are highly exhausted and need to rest before they start feeding. 

Cheetahs are sexually dimorphic which means that males are significantly larger and heavier than females. Their size and weight varies throughout their range. Namibian cheetah males weight between 40 kg and 55 kg and females between 30 kg and 45 kg. The shoulder height of males ranges from 75 cm to 90 cm and of females from 75 cm to 85 cm. The body length from the nose to the start of the tail ranges for males from 120 cm to140 cm and for females from 115 cm to 130 cm. Their tail measures between 70 cm and 80 cm and is covered with spots, four to six spotted rings and a white tuft at its end.