CHEETAH
#CTH-500
Notecards
Also available in Notecard Assortment Pack #AST-513
#LE-CTH-500 Limited Edition Print
Over
short distances, the cheetah can reach 75 mph, making it the fastest
land mammal on earth. From a dead stop, this animal can go 45
mph in two seconds. But after sprinting a few hundred yards, the
cheetah may collapse in fatigue, suddenly unable to defend itself.
There’s
never any need to worry about being caught by a cheetah, though.
No records exist to indicate that this even-tempered cat has ever
attacked a human. The cheetah even lacks the threatening roar
of other large cats; instead, it chirps like a bird or yelps like
a dog. The easiest of the large cats to train, it has associated
with people for over 4,000 years. Hunting with cheetahs was once
the Sport of Kings.
The
adult cheetah stands about 36 inches at the shoulder, measures
six to seven feet from muzzle to tail tip, and weighs anywhere
from 75 to 135 pounds. Males usually outweigh females. The yellowish-brown
coat is marked with black spots. And a line shaped like a long,
black teardrop runs down each side of the nose.
IIn
their natural habitat of eastern and southern Africa, cheetahs
hunt young antelope and other midsize mammals during the day.
The conversion of African grasslands to farming and manufacturing
areas has resulted in the dwindling of the cheetah population
in the wild to fewer than 15,000 animals. This endangered species
has been bred successfully in captivity, however, and zoologists
intend to release some of these cheetahs into the wild.
Text
© 1999 Terry White, Drawing © 1999 Bill Harrah.
CHEETAHS
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