6. What Is The Fastest Land Animal In The World?

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Sydney was a summer intern with AWF. She is entering her senior twelvemonth of high school and has a passion for wild animals conservation. She hopes to 1 day be a wildlife vet.

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I accept to admit, I'thou not normally a big fan of cats. But, for whatever reason, I cannot aid but be captivated by cheetahs. Maybe it's their grace and agility or perchance it'southward only the face of a cheetah cub, just I remember these cats are incredible.

Cheetahs are the world's fastest country animate being, capable of reaching speeds of upwards to 70 mph. Standing at about xxx inches tall at the shoulder and weighing between 110 and 140 pounds, they have long, graceful legs; a small, rounded caput on a long neck; a very flexible spine; a deep chest; special pads on their feet that assistance with traction; and a long tail that is used for balance at top speed. The chetah is also the but true cat that cannot retract its claws, providing more traction. They also have distinctive black "tear tracks" that run from the corner of each center to their mouth and provide anti-glare protection for daytime hunting.

In curt, cheetahs are built for speed, grace, and hunting.

Cheetahs mainly prey on small antelopes such as Thomson's gazelles and impalas, although they will also hunt small mammals and birds. When a cheetah hunts, it gets as close equally possible to its prey before trying to outrun it with a outburst of speed. The cheetah then uses its mitt to swipe the animal to the ground and then suffocates it with a bite to the neck.

It and then eats as quickly as possible while looking out for scavengers such as lions, leopards, hyenas, vultures, and jackals, who will steal from the very shy cheetah.

Unlike most other cats, cheetahs prefer to chase during the solar day, specially early morning or early on evening.

Well-nigh of the time, cheetahs are lonely animals. On occasion, a male volition hang out with a female after mating, merely other than that, the female is either with her cubs or by herself.

Cubs spend a long time with their mothers as they learn to chase. Mom will bring a small, alive antelope back to her cubs then they can hunt and catch it.

Unfortunately, in that location is a very high cub mortality rate among cheetahs. Approximately l-75% dice in the first iii months of life because they are so susceptible to affliction and predators such as eagles, hyenas, and lions.

Cheetahs are currently classified every bit "vulnerable" by the IUCN. In 1900, an estimated 100,000 cheetahs could be found beyond Africa. Now, in that location are about 7,500 adults left in the wild; the population has decreased by about 30% just in the past xviii years.

The high cub bloodshed rate is merely i problem for cheetahs, though; they besides face a lot of human being-wildlife conflict and habitat loss.

Over the years, the chetah's habitat has shrunk dramatically, and it is now only 25% of its former size. Where they do alive (mostly Eastern and Southern Africa), they tend to be found widely but sparsely.

Cheetahs live where their prey is: the open up plains. All the same, as the human populations grow and people expand agriculture and civilisation into the grassland, more than and more than of the cheetahs' habitat is disappearing.

The other problem cheetahs are currently facing is human-wildlife conflict. Equally people expand into the cheetahs' habitat, their usual prey is disappearing as well, forcing them to casualty on livestock. This causes farmers to view them as pests and impale them in retaliation.

To help gainsay these problems, AWF is working to engage communities and minimize human-wildlife disharmonize.

By instruction communities that share space with cheetahs how to farm and aggrandize sustainably and providing incentives for using the best practices, AWF is encouraging the people and animals are able to coexist peacefully. AWF is also helping to construct predator-proof bomas (livestock enclosures) to forestall the livestock from as much damage as possible. When cheetahs do impale livestock, farmers are given alleviation funding so that they can replace the dead animal without having to seek revenge against the cheetahs.

In add-on, AWF is also working to prepare bated land for conservation to ensure the cheetah volition always have a place to live. When the Satao Elerai Lodge was opened in Kenya, the local Maasai community who owns the lodge agreed to set aside the surrounding area for conservation, and now the business and the land is thriving.

As well in Kenya, AWF is working with landowners in the Amboseli region to set aside country to create a wildlife corridor between Amboseli National Park and Chyulu Hills and Tsavo W National Park. By paying landowners for each acre set aside for wildlife, AWF is making sure that animals tin can continue to utilize their traditional routes without coming into impairment's way.

By working with the people who live side by side with cheetahs, we can aid make certain these majestic creatures will be around for generations to come up.

All photos courtesy of Robyn Gianni

Source: https://www.awf.org/blog/cheetahs-worlds-fastest-land-animal

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