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These graceful animals, built like greyhounds while superficially resembling leopards, although they have more distinctive spots and longer legs, are fairly common on Serengeti's open savannah grasslands.
They are the fastest animals on earth accelerating to speeds of up to 110 km/h over short distances. But they can only maintain this speed for up to 300 meters because their bodies rapidly overheat.
Cheetah cubs eating a Thomson's gazelle
Their colloquial name derives from the Hindu word chita. "King cheetah" are not a separate species but a color variant.
The colonization of Africa, demand for their skins, over-emphasis on their predatory impact on domestic livestock and, less frequently, the demand for them as pets, has led to the shrinkage of their range or their disappearance from many parts of Africa.
They became extinct in India in 1952. They have disappeared from the countries they inhabited bordering the eastern Mediterranean. But they are still found in northern parts of the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. Namibia, with some 2,500 cheetahs, has about a quarter of the world's surviving population.
Cheetahs' bodies, unlike those of the stockier more powerful leopard, are slender and held high off the ground on long thin legs. Their heads are smaller and much more rounded, muzzles shorter, ears smaller and they have distinctive "tear marks" which almost join the eyes and mouth.
They hunt mostly in daylight hours, mainly around sunrise and sunset and, in common with lions and leopards, rest during the hotter hours of the day on elevated sites warming themselves.
But, like everything else in the wild, there are no firm rules. In the southwest Serengeti, at noon, I watched a mother and her four cubs on a Thomson's gazelle they had just killed.
The mother sat upright on the open plains ignoring my vehicle and the zebra that eyed her nervously from nearby. The cubs, about nine months-old, chewed away on the remains of the Thomson's gazelle. When the meal was over, the mother, with that slow, characteristic, stately walk, moved across to the cubs, cleaning the blood from their muzzles.
Then, as if by an unspoken command, the five cheetah set out across the plains towards a herd of Thomson's as if seeking another meal. In fact they were heading for a vlei (dry river bed) where the vegetation offered a measure of shade. At the vlei they disturbed a sleeping hyena that swiftly made off, although the fearsome jaws of the hyena could easily kill a cheetah.
On another occasion, it was witnessed the maternal instincts of a female cheetah, her cubs threatened by a hyena.
The hyena had conspicuously journeyed across the plains, obviously intent on the very young cheetah cubs. Suddenly, disregarding her own safety, the mother flew at the hyena, leaping on its back. The hyena emitted a frightened howl, disengaged the enraged cheetah and swiftly fled.
Meanwhile, the tiny cheetah cubs had disappeared amidst a sea of wildebeest. Surely they would be trampled to death?
Yet, none the worse for wear, they re-emerged chasing each other and playing as if nothing had happened while the mother shepherded them away, trying to restore a semblance of order.
The cubs remain with their mother for about a year, dispersing before another litter is born. Males' may form cohesive bachelor groups that have very large, sometimes overlapping, home ranges.
Unlike leopards, cheetah are averse to swimming and are infrequent tree climbers. Cheetah are also not as water-dependent as many animals, relying on their prey for moisture requirements.
Their call is bird-like resembling a chirrup when excited or greeting members of their group, and they may purr, growl, snarl, hiss or cough depending upon whether they are content or feel threatened.
They prefer to attack stragglers in prey groups, approaching their intended victims openly, pausing only if it shows signs of nervousness, and then running the victim down with an electrifying burst of speed.
Mating occurs throughout the year and courtship is a very subtle and complex process. If a female is not ready she may swat the male aggressively and emit a stuttering call. If she is ready, the male will mock charge, copiously spray urine and he may scrape up small mounds of earth with his hind legs and urinate or defecate on them.
Cubs weigh 250 to 300 gms at birth and they are usually born in tall grass or underbrush which offers
camouflage. The average litter is four and the cubs are blind until the 10th or 12th day when their eyes open. At three weeks they begin to move around and after six weeks they can follow their mother.
They are highly vulnerable to predators in this period and the mother often moves them one by one by the scruff of the neck to a new hiding place.
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