The cheetah is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, capable of running at 80 to 128 km/h, and as such has several adaptations for speed, including a light build, long thin legs and a long tail. Cheetahs typically reach 67–94 cm (26–37 in) at the shoulder, and the head-and-body length is between 1.1 and 1.5 m. Adults typically weigh between 20 and 65 kg. Its head is small, rounded, and has a short snout and black tear-like facial streaks. The coat is typically tawny to creamy white or pale buff and is mostly covered with evenly spaced, solid black spots. Four subspecies are recognised.
Acinonyx is a genus within the cat family. The only living species of this genus, the cheetah A. jubatus, lives in open grasslands of Africa and Asia.
The term "bigcat" is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus Panthera, namely tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. Except the snow leopard, these species are able to roar. A more liberal and expansive definition of the term includes species outside of Panthera including the cougar, clouded leopard, Sunda clouded leopard, cheetah and sometimes the several lynx species, although these added species also do not roar.
A purr is a tonal fluttering sound made by some species of felids and two species of genets. It varies in loudness and tone among species and in the same animal. Felids are a family of mammals that belong to the order Carnivora and are informally known as cats. This designation includes larger, outdoor cats and the domestic cat. Genets are a member of the genus Genetta and are slim animals with features similar to cats. Their features include retractile claws and the ringed tail.
The American cheetah is either of two feline species of the extinct genus Miracinonyx, endemic to North America during the Pleistocene epoch and morphologically similar to the modern cheetah. These cats were originally known from fragments of skeletons, but nearly complete skeletons have been recovered from Natural Trap Cave in northern Wyoming.
The cheetah is the fastest of all land animals, and a member of the family Felidae.
The Asiatic cheetah, also known as Iranian or Persian cheetah, is a Critically Endangered cheetah subspecies surviving today only in Iran. It once occurred from the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East to the Caspian region, Kyzylkum Desert, Pakistan and India, but has been extirpated there during the 20th century.
The Northwest African cheetah, also known as the Saharan cheetah, is a cheetah subspecies native to the Sahara and the Sahel. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. In 2008, the population was suspected to number less than 250 mature individuals.
The Cheetah Conservation Fund is a research and lobby institution in Namibia concerned with the study and sustenance of the country's cheetah population, the largest and healthiest in the world. Its Research and Education Centre is located 44 kilometres (27 mi) east of Otjiwarongo. The CCF was founded in 1990 by conservation biologist Laurie Marker who won the 2010 Tyler Prize for her efforts in Namibia.
The Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve is a 3,000-acre (12 km2) breeding and reacclimation center administered by the Israel Nature Reserves & National Parks Authority, situated in the Southern Arabah near Yotvata.
Parc des Félins is a zoological park in France dedicated to the breeding and conservation of wild members of the cat family. It is located in the commune of Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux in Seine-et-Marne, about 53.6 km (33.3 mi) southeast of Paris.
"Acinonyx kurteni", or the Linxia cheetah, is a discredited fossil specimen of an extinct cheetah discovered in China. The scientific name was assigned for the skull that was originally described to be that of an extinct species of cheetah, endemic to Asia during the Late Pliocene sub-epoch. It was estimated to have lived around 2.2 to 2.5 Ma BP, existing for approximately 0.3 million years.
Helicobacter acinonychis is a bacterium in the Helicobacteraceae family, Campylobacterales order. It was first isolated from cheetahs with gastritis, so has been associated with this disease in this particular species and others of its kind. It is Gram-negative, spiral-shaped, and grows under microaerophilic conditions. The type strain is 90-119.
The West Sudanian savanna is a tropical savanna ecoregion that extends across West Africa.
The East African cheetah, is a cheetah population in East Africa. It lives in grasslands and savannas of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia. The cheetah inhabits mainly the Serengeti ecosystem, including Maasai Mara, and the Tsavo landscape.
The Northeast African cheetah is a cheetah subspecies occurring in Northeast Africa. Contemporary records are known in South Sudan and Ethiopia, but population status in Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan is unknown.
The Southeast African cheetah is the nominate cheetah subspecies native to East and Southern Africa. The Southern African cheetah lives mainly in the lowland areas and deserts of the Kalahari, the savannahs of Okavango Delta, and the grasslands of the Transvaal region in South Africa. In Namibia, cheetahs are mostly found in farmlands.
The Laohu Valley Reserve (LVR) is a nature reserve located near Philippolis in the Free State and near Vanderkloof Dam in the Northern Cape of South Africa. It is a roughly 350-square-kilometre private reserve.
Sarah, also known as Sahara, was a female South African cheetah that lived in the Cincinnati Zoo in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sarah was known as the world's fastest land mammal according to National Geographic magazine. She ran 100 meters in 5.95 seconds in 2012 when she was 11 years old. She died on January 22, 2016 at the age of 15.
The feline tribe Acinonychini contains three genera, each with one extant species: the cougar in Puma, the jaguarundi in Herpailurus, and the cheetah in Acinonyx.
