Cheetah Facts
- The cheetah is the fastest land animal reaching speeds as fast as 70mph
- The cheetah can accelerate to 60mph in as little as 3 seconds
- Cheetahs are maternal animals; mothers live with their cubs for up to two years
- In addition to speed cheetahs also use their camouflage to aid in their hunts
- The largest cheetah population is in Southwestern Africa in the country of Namibia
Locomotion
- The gait of a cheetah has eight different positions as depicted in the diagram below
- The long fibred muscles within a cheetah's forelimb allow for the cheetah to effectively and rapidly contract those muscles. This allows the cheetah to have longer strides and aids in a cheetah's ability to quickly change their speed
- It has been found that a cheetah's forearm can withstand large joint torques aiding is stabilization at high speeds
- Cheetahs have large digital flexor muscles. These muscles are used to flex the digits, exposing the cheetah's claws aiding in traction when running. This also aids the cheetah with changing direction at high speeds.
- The cheetah has large hind limb bones, an adaptation to increase the stride length when running as well as to withstand greater forces.
- The psoa muscles, the muscles that connect to the hind limb and spine, are significantly large on a cheetah compared to other mammals. It is believed these muscles provide the cheetah with most of the power needed during moments of acceleration.
- The cheetah has pointed pads on the back of each forelimb. A cheetah can slam these pads into the ground when running at high speeds to bring them to an instant stop
Sources
Hildebrand, Milton Further Studies on Locomotion of the Cheetah Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Feb., 1961), pp. 84-91 Hudson, P. E., Corr, S. A., Payne-Davis, R. C., Clancy, S. N., Lane, E. and Wilson, A. M. (2011), Functional anatomy of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)forelimb. Journal of Anatomy, 218: 375–385. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2011.01344.x
Hudson, P. E., Corr, S. A., Payne-Davis, R. C., Clancy, S. N., Lane, E. and Wilson, A. M. (2011), Functional anatomy of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) hindlimb. Journal of Anatomy, 218: 363–374. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2010.01310.x
Plato, P. "Some Cool Facts about Cheetah–The fastest land animal." (2012).
www.lions.org/cheetah.html (2011).
Hildebrand, Milton Further Studies on Locomotion of the Cheetah Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Feb., 1961), pp. 84-91 Hudson, P. E., Corr, S. A., Payne-Davis, R. C., Clancy, S. N., Lane, E. and Wilson, A. M. (2011), Functional anatomy of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)forelimb. Journal of Anatomy, 218: 375–385. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2011.01344.x
Hudson, P. E., Corr, S. A., Payne-Davis, R. C., Clancy, S. N., Lane, E. and Wilson, A. M. (2011), Functional anatomy of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) hindlimb. Journal of Anatomy, 218: 363–374. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2010.01310.x
Plato, P. "Some Cool Facts about Cheetah–The fastest land animal." (2012).
www.lions.org/cheetah.html (2011).