Diet
Cheetah with his prey
Cheetahs mostly eat animals that are under 88 pounds like gazelles such as the Thomson's Gazelle and the Grant's Gazelle. They also eat springboks and impalas. They sometimes also eat wildebeests and zebras when hunting in packs. Guineafowls and hares are also prey. What a cheetah eats depends on where it lives, for example if a cheetah lives in the East African Plain it will hunt the Thomson's Gazelle. Cheetahs will also hunt the animals that stray from the pack or look weak.
Hunting
Cheetah chasing his prey
The cheetah interestingly hunts by sight. Therefore the cheetah hunts during the day, preferably early morning and late evening when it is not too hot. Cheetahs will stalk their prey coming as close as 10m and as far as 30m. Then they will start their chase. This amazingly only takes less than a minute for a cheetah. The cheetah has a success rate of 50%.
Cheetahs run at a speed of 70 to 75 mph which puts oodles of strain on the cheetahs' body. When cheetahs run they can take steps up to 22 feet. They also have to take deep breaths to keep up with the demand of their body. The cheetha's body temperature is so high when running it would be fatal to continue for longer distances. The cheetah kills its prey by tackling it- as you can see in the video below- and then biting it in the neck to suffocate it.
Cheetahs run at a speed of 70 to 75 mph which puts oodles of strain on the cheetahs' body. When cheetahs run they can take steps up to 22 feet. They also have to take deep breaths to keep up with the demand of their body. The cheetha's body temperature is so high when running it would be fatal to continue for longer distances. The cheetah kills its prey by tackling it- as you can see in the video below- and then biting it in the neck to suffocate it.
