International Cheetah Day

1. The name cheetah is from the Hindi language. ‘Chita’ in Hindi means ‘spotted one’. It’s a very good name as it is thought a cheetah can have around 2000 spots on its body. Each cheetah has a different pattern of spots so will look a little bit different from another. There are even some cheetahs called King Cheetahs who look very different and their spots merge into each other so they look a bit more like stripes.

2. Cheetahs can be found living in the wild in Africa and in a very small area of Asia. They used to be found in more countries in Africa as well as in many places in Asia and the Middle East but are now only found in about 10% of the places they used to live as their numbers have gone down so much.

3. There are 5 species of cheetahs living today, 3 of which are listed as vulnerable and 2 which are critically endangered meaning they are at real risk of becoming extinct. The two species most endangered are the Northwest African Cheetah and the Asiatic Cheetah.

4. Cheetahs can be found living in quite a few different habitats such as deserts, mountains and jungles but prefer to live in grassland habitats where there is plenty of prey and lots of space to roam.

5. Cheetahs are small, slender wild cats (in comparison to lions or tigers) that look quite similar to leopards, with their long legs, long thin body and small head. You can tell the difference easily because cheetahs have black tear marks from the inner corner of their eyes to their mouth. The other difference is cheetahs have round or oval shaped spots while leopards have rosettes which look a bit like the shape of a rose.

6. Cheetahs are very good runners and can run at speeds of up to 70 miles and hour in short bursts, but usually don’t need to run that fast to catch their prey. They are the fastest animal on land over short distances and can reach 60mph in just 3 seconds.

7. Cheetahs use their long tail to help steer them when they are running super fast, helping them to change direction without slowing down.

8. Cheetahs prefer to hunt during the day when most other predators are least active. If they see another predator while eating the prey they have caught they are quite likely to run away and abandon it for others to scavenge. 

9. Male cheetahs like living in groups called coalitions. A coalition is often two or three male cheetahs, who a lot of the time are actually brothers. Female cheetahs prefer being on their own, apart from their cubs who they look after for in general around 1 and a half years.

10. Unlike other wild cats, like lions, tigers and leopards, cheetahs can’t roar. Instead they meow and purr! They can make other sounds too, like hissing or growling too.