For many years cheetah numbers have been declining. One of the reasons for this is conflict with humans. Therefore the Spier Estate Cheetah Project is promoting a Turkish dog breed to improve the situation. The dogs are placed with farmers stock, such as sheep or goats from the age of 6-8 weeks. This means that they will protect the flock from danger, as, having been brought up with the flock, they will defend it. The Cheetah is a cat that is more 'flight' than 'fight' and so the dogs loud bark is enough to frighten off the cheetahs, thereby reducing the numbers of free roaming cheetahs which are shot or trapped as a result of stealing the sheep or goats.
We were then shown a cheetah skeleton. The first thing that one noticed about the entire frame was that bones were long and extremely fragile looking. These bones are very light, helping it to reach the high speeds characteristic of the cat.
The hips and collar bones of a cheetah are free floating. This allows for a much longer stride of between 7 and 8 metres, as effectively the legs are able to stretch out beyond the position that other cats can achieve. A cheetah has a long tail which acts as a rudder, allowing for sharp turning when following prey as well as acting as a means of providing balance.
The head is small and streamlined, reducing drag, which would slow the cat and be counterproductive to hunting.
A cheetahs claws are, in general, not sharp. Instead they act as traction, in the same way that studs on a rugby boot work. On each paw they have one long claw, which is not in contact with the ground, which they use to trip up their prey when they are in close enough range.
It is important that a cheetah times this attack to perfection, as one wrong move could leave the cheetah injured from a horn or hoove, meaning that the cat cannot hunt and would starve to death.
It is important that a cheetah is able to get to within 30 metres of its prey before it commences its chase, as although they are the fastest animal on the planet (speeds of up to 120kmph) with the fastest acceleration (0 to 70kmph in 3 seconds), they are unable to maintain these speeds for long periods of time as a antelope such as the impala and springbok are capable of. Therefore chases usually last about 20 seconds at most. Beyond this time, exhaustion begins to set in and the cheetahs body can overheat to near fatal levels. As a result of this, when a cheetah catches its prey it must rest for up to half an hour before it is able to feed, simply to ensure that its body conditions return to normal. This is considered one of the many reasons that numbers are falling, as during this time period the cheetah is prone to have its meal scavenged by hyena and other carnivores since cheetah are not adapted to fight for their food, having little sheer muscle when compared to these other carnivores.
It is clear that they are a well evolved species, and this is evident through every part of their anatomy, adapted for speed and acceleration. However these adaptions have meant that strength and muscle have been compromised which can affect their survival when they are having to compete with other larger animals for food.
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