BIG CAT?
I often see the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) referenced as a “big cat.”
For years the term “big cats” typically referred to the subfamily of pantherines especially the lion, jaguar, tiger, and leopard. This subfamily also included the non-roaring snow leopard and clouded leopards. The second subfamily included small cats or felines and the larger mountain lion and the larger cheetah in its distinct genus. Certain scientists refer to the cheetah as a big cat which it and the mountain lion are in the small feline sub-family. Or they call it big cat regardless of sub-family knowledge.
WHY CLASSIFY A “BIG CAT?”
Big cats can roar, but not purr. On the other hand, er, mouth, the small felines, the cheetah and cougar, can purr but not roar. Each have a special u-shaped hyoid bone apparatus, located at the base of the tongue and in the front of the neck. It gives structure for the tongue, larynx, and part of the throat. The differences seem to be purring cats have a rigid hyoid bone while non-purring cats have a more flexible one. Vocal folds/cords also vary in shape. Roaring cats have flat, square shaped vocal folds that can tolerate stretching and shearing while purring cats’ vocal cords form a circle.
Cheetahs can purr while breathing in and out, chirp, bubble, growl, spit, and bark. Many audios/videos misname the “growl” as a roar.
LINK: Cheetah-chirps.mp3
LINK: cheetah-purrs-like-a-kitten.mp3
SIZE
Often the size of a cheetah’s body and tail is given a measurement range where males are slightly bigger and have larger, rounder heads than females. In a recent study, cheetahs in Namibia were shorter and slimmer than those in Botswana. However, in Botswana, their density was three times higher within a three times smaller home range than in Namibia. The study inferred the differences in measurements related to the abundance or size of prey and available home range. The study also recommended standardized protocols. That said, body length is about 4-5 feet, and tail length usually is between two-to-three feet. Weights averaged 46-158 pounds.
PORSCHE VS CHEETAH SPEED
As the world’s fastest land animal, the cheetah can reach 70 mph in just over 3 seconds which isn’t as fast as the 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo G, but still fast and close! Although the cheetah cannot sustain that speed for a long chase, it appears to average under 40 mph in a thousand feet.
That slim body was built for speed with long, slender legs, a flexible spine, those semi-retractable claws, shoulder blades attached to muscles, not bone, and a tail that helps in turns and balance. Plus the cheetah also has an enlarged heart, large arteries, and oversized liver, lungs, and bronchi. Link to Part 1 included other adaptations for speed.
PREY
Usual prey includes small to medium-sized antelope, warthogs, hares, birds, rodents, and young and sub-adults of larger herbivores. However, more studies indicate the cheetah is opportunistic and will kill adult ostriches, baboons, porcupines, and young giraffes. Even two different adult females successfully killed two different antelope species weighing more than several hundred pounds each. Certain studies indicate this cat only selects non-horned species, but one female adult has specialized in killing horned wildebeest and teaching her cubs to do the same.
Once the cheetah detects prey and stalks as close as it can, the chase begins. When it gets close to its prey, it knocks it off balance with a blow from the front paws or trips it. Or it may cling to the rump until it can reach the neck to then suffocate it with a bite to the throat.
COALITION
A coalition can include two to five sibling males that stay and hunt together after they depart from their mother at 15-23 months. Sometimes a non-related male may join and other times a coalition can contain a temporary group of unrelated or related cats. By the way, male African lions can also form a coalition.
Some advantages are the coalition can attack larger antelopes and zebras, maintain territories longer, and increase defense against predators. It also helps to reduce stealing of their prey from hyenas, lions, and leopards. Coalitions typically have a dominant male. However, I wonder if females couldn’t form a coalition as well. Anyway, the dominant male usually is the one that can mate.
Males mark their territory to warn other cheetahs and also to attract females. Females usually don’t mark their territory as often. One photo shows a cat using its claws to scrape the trunk. Remember that cheetahs have scent glands on their paws, their faces, and near their tails. This cat also rubbed its face against the tree bark and if clawing and rubbing its face weren’t enough, it turned, cocked its tail, and scent marked the tree with urine, a complex cocktail of chemicals. Definitely mixed signals, that work!
Although cheetahs are typically documented in open grasslands, they also live in forested areas and can climb trees! I even saw one scent mark a branch about 25 feet from the ground! That’s a new meaning for “cat-a-log” and it attained that height without a “cat-a-pult!”
At an impala kill with a coalition of two cheetahs, each one stopped eating to call out for another. Eventually, another one joined them! They fed and shared the carcass quietly with no signs of aggression. Considered clean meat eaters, they did not eat bone, skin, or any of the digestive tract. So watching them eat was not “cat-e-gory.” However, I surmise if a cat was hungry enough, it would eat skin, etc..
CHANGES IN DAILY ROUTINE? CAT NAPS, DRINKING, PLAYING, MARKING, HUNTING, FEEDING, ETC.
Most of a cheetah’s day involves cat naps especially in shady spots under trees in the heat of the day. They also need water or a “cat-a-tonic” every few days, times to play to enhance their muscles and survival skills, marking territories, hunting, etc. Scientists theorize the cheetah to be most active during early morning and late evening hours to reduce conflict with other predators such as lions, leopards, and hyenas. New studies indicate cheetahs can hunt at night and even during the heat of the day and appear to be more opportunistic than originally thought.
A recent study in Africa investigated the temperature impact on the daily activity of lions, leopards, cheetahs, and African wild dogs. Light and temperature combinations shaped the activity of these species with most becoming more active at night as temperatures increased. However, the cheetahs had the biggest shift of 15.92 percent in their daily activity to become more nocturnal. This shift could result in more conflict with these other carnivores.
Also, this activity shift could impact survival of cheetah cubs. Hyenas, lions, and leopards kill cubs. In a recent six month, 24/7 documentary of studying lions and cheetah, the cinematographers inferred that a male cheetah may kill the cubs to incite the mother to go into estrus. Other scientists disagree with that statement as they observed several males trying to mate with a female without harming any cubs.
MORE SOCIAL THAN EXPECTED
In 2020 another study revealed two adult cheetahs, an eight year old mother and three year old daughter, reunited and shared feeding each others cubs. Allomothering is where a different mother would nurse another’s offspring which has been reported in elephant herds, lion prides, and certain birds, but not cheetah. The daughter would even leave and swap cubs and then return again. Even cooperative hunting was observed. (Aha, a female coalition.)
Eventually the older mother left with all eight cubs to another territory and evidently raised them to adulthood. Later the daughter gave birth to two cubs and raised them alone. But the typical survival rate to raise cheetah cubs past one year is 5 % or so.
TAKE MORE TIME TO SPOT WILDLIFE!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Twenty-five years ago while living in Namibia, Africa, I heard about the Cheetah Conservation Fund, that offered farmers an Anatolian shepherd dog to protect livestock in exchange for a trapped live cheetah. I also heard of a farmer that would not kill a wild cheetah visiting his farm. It appeared to enjoy the top of his parked pick-up truck as a make-believe termite mound to look for prey and other cheetahs and a safe place to cat nap. This farmer did not kill cheetah as many others farmers did.
After an invitation to visit on the chance the cheetah might be at the truck, I brought my old film camera to photograph. The farmer and his wife asked if I could return to photograph their famous Anatolian shepherd, Flintis. He had survived an attack by two adult baboons, while he safe-guarded his goat and sheep herd from them. Baboons can kill and eat goats and lambs. Flintis was a living hero and his story would be told in a book.
I obliged and several of my images accompanied his incredible survival story in one of Oprah’s tv shows favorite things in the book, Dogs with Jobs, along with the US and African editions of Readers Digest. Here is a 25 year old, mangled print I scanned, but you can see Flintis with the shepherd.
LINK TO PART 1
DISCLAIMER: Some references may not agree or I may not have found the most recent name changes. Plus autocorrect doesn’t like scientific names or language translations.
The Safari Companion, Richard D. Estes
The Cheetah, The Biology, Ecology, and Behavior of an Endangered Species, Randall L Eaton
BIG CATS 24/7, BBC Natural History Unit/PBS
BIG CATS SMALL WORLD: LANDLORDS, PSRTS 1, 2, Nature Series, PBS
https://panthera.org/blog-post/wild-cats-101-male-lion-coalitions
https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_cheetah.html
https://memoriesfromthewild.com/en/page-6700-cheetah-acinonyx-jubatus
https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-abstract/97/3/919/2459710?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.193
https://sawma.co.za/conference/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SAWMA-Abstracts-3.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_cars_by_acceleration
https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_cheetah.html
https://memoriesfromthewild.com/en/page-6700-cheetah-acinonyx-jubatus
Cherie Pittillo, “nature inspired,” photographer and author, explores nature everywhere she goes. She’s identified 56 bird species in her Merida, Yucatan backyard view. Her monthly column features anecdotes about birding in Merida, Yucatan and also wildlife beyond the Yucatan.
Contact: [email protected] All rights reserved, ©Cherie Pittillo
