![]() The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as a whole as vulnerable to extinction, with smaller populations in Iran and northwestern Africa categorized as critically endangered.įollow Christine Dell'Amore on Twitter and Google+. (See National Geographic photos of cheetahs on the edge.) The big cats, which live in Africa and Iran, have dwindled from about 100,000 in 1900 to an estimated 9,000 to 12,000 individuals today, particularly due to widespread loss of prey and habitat. However, their speed hasn't helped them tackle threats to their survival in the wild. But did you know their tails play a crucial role in hunting? Check out this and other fun facts about cheetahs.Īs astonishingly swift as Sarah's world record time of 5.95 seconds might seem in a human context, it's almost certain that cheetahs in the wild-lean, hungry, chasing down antelopes for their own survival or that of their cubs-have run considerably faster. "You know, this is one of these things - I had a professor who said 'I don't know if this is true but it deserves to be true'.You may already know that cheetahs are the world's fastest land animal. That reassures Matthew Carrano, curator of dinosaurs at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, who came to much the same conclusion from studying the T. ![]() They found that the giant Tyrannosaurus rex topped out at a mere 17 miles an hour. Once his research team proved their calculations worked on living animals, they turned their analysis to dinosaurs. Jetz reports his findings in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. "The leopard or the jaguar have enough acceleration energy to make it all the way to nearly your theoretically maximum speed," says Jetz. Mid-sized animals, however, have a mix of energy and limb size and muscle that puts them in a speed "sweet spot." They don't burn out as fast. Fastest mammal on land, the cheetah can reach speeds of 60 or perhaps even 70 miles (97 or 113 kilometers) an hour over short distances. They switch over the aerobic running, which is lower intensity and much slower. "In practice, they run out of energy in their acceleration before they can even reach that theoretical speed," Jetz says. The Two-Way NOAA Halts Whale Disentanglement Efforts After Rescuer DiesĪnimals only have so much of this kind of fuel: What happens is, the biggest animals take more time to accelerate, and they run out of it before they reach their top speed. This is where muscles are working hard and fast - anaerobically, or without much oxygen. Acceleration is all about burning the body's high-octane fuel to get those fast-twitch muscles going. It turns out that reaching your top speed potential depends on your fuel tank. It's actually mid-sized animals that run almost as fast as their bodies theoretically can go: the cheetah, the marlin, or the falcon, for example. "I mean it's really cool actually," Jetz says, "to think about these really large birds or mammals or even large dinosaurs, in principle they could have been super super fast." For example, based on muscle mass and body size, an elephant in theory could run 60 miles an hour.īut Jetz and his fellow researchers studied over 400 animals species and found that the biggest animals fall short of their potential. Animals with longer limbs and lots of muscle should be able to cover ground - or water or air - the fastest. Yale University biologist Walter Jetz says theoretically, they should. ![]() It seems long legs don't make you the fastest in the land. Here's a puzzle: a giraffe has much longer legs than a cheetah, but it runs only about half as fast. Thierry Falise/LightRocket via Getty Images An African cheetah (acinonyx jubatus lanea) at Inverdoorn Game Reservein South Africa. ![]()
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