dog facts wikipedia

hello, my name is tay zonday and i will beyour guide as videofort.com takes you on a journey to explore the wild. the cheetah is a large feline inhabiting mostof africa and parts of the middle east. they are naturally found in the open grasslandsof eastern and southwestern africa. they are long and lanky, with a yellow-grey fur spottedwith dark dots. the word cheetah comes from the sanskrit word 'chitraka' meaning 'thespotted one'. the cheetah can run faster than any otherland animal— as fast as 70 to 75 mph. bursts of high speed give the cheetah an enormousadvantage as a predator. its slender, long-legged body is adapted to enable it to reach highspeeds. the cheetah is smaller, leaner than

other big cats, measuring 44 to 53 incheslong with a tail length of 26 to 33 inches. cheetahs usually weigh 110-140 lb. the headis small with eyes set high and a black 'tear mark' running from the inner aspect of eacheye down to the mouth. the cheetah is the world's fastest land mammal,and the most unique and specialized member of the cat family. it can achieve a speedof 60 mph per hour in just 3 seconds. these nimble cats are extremely agile and can makeswift, sudden turns in pursuit of prey. cheetahs are diurnal hunters and use theirdistinctive spotted coats to blend with the high grasses. the chase is usually over inless than a minute, after which the cheetah drags its prey to a shady corner to devourits meal.

males are territorial. females' home rangescan be very large and a territory including several females' ranges is impossible to defend.instead, males choose the points at which several of the females' home ranges overlap,creating a much smaller space, which can be properly defended against intruders whilemaximizing the chance of reproduction. the cheetah is a vulnerable species. of allthe big cats, it is the least able to adapt to new environments. it has always proveddifficult to breed in captivity, although recently a few zoos have managed to succeedat this. cheetahs are included on the internationalunion for conservation of nature list of vulnerable species as well as on the us endangered speciesact as a threatened species. approximately

12,400 cheetahs remain in the wild in twenty-fiveafrican countries; namibia has the most, with about 2,500. another fifty to sixty criticallyendangered asiatic cheetahs are thought to remain in iran.