Overview Of The East-Southern African Cheetah And Its Social Behavior

The East-Southern African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) is the most numerous and the nominate cheetah subspecies that native to Eastern and Southern Africa including Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The Southern African cheetah lives mainly in the lowland areas and deserts Kalahari, the savannahs of Okavango Delta and the grasslands of the Transvaal region in South Africa while in Namibia, cheetahs are mostly found in farmlands. The first Southern African cheetah was described by the German zoologist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1775 and named it as Felis jubatus on the basis of a specimen from the Cape of Good Hope and the Subpopulations have been referred to by names such as "South African cheetah" and "Namibian cheetah.

The East-Southern African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) is a subspecies of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) that most graceful members of the cat family, and it is one of the few cat species that relies on speed instead of stealth when hunting. Cheetahs are in fact the fastest land mammals on Earth, reaching speeds of 110-120 km/h and it is also accelerated from 0 to 80/in just three seconds, which faster than any sports car. Historically, cheetahs lived throughout the African continent, India and the Arabian Peninsula while the Modern cheetahs are restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, where they live in small populations that are increasingly isolated due to habitat loss and human incursion. Cheetahs also prey on hoofed animals, primarily gazelles and wildebeests that graze in open savannas, although they also take down smaller game. The sleek cheetah's had built for high-speed sprints, not for power like the leopard and other big cats are and they average 3. 5 to 4. 5 feet long from nose to rump and can stand 2 to 3 feet at the shoulder.

Cheetah also have slim legs that proportionately longer than those of other big cats and it weigh between 75 and 145 pounds, males tending to weigh more than females of similar size. The cheetah has smooth fur is a pale tawny base covered with simple black spots of irregular shape and occurrence. The cheetah also has Black stripes of fur known as “tear lines” frame the cheetah’s face from the outer corner of its eyes down its nose to its mouth and its keep the sun out of the cheetah’s eyes when it is hunting. The simplicity of a cheetah’s spots distinguishes it from the leopard because the leopard have more complex colouration, with black and brown clusters of spots called rosettes.

While the female cheetahs are mostly solitary creatures and the males are quite different but sometimes male cheetah will join together so they can defend their living space and food resources. Most of the time these partnerships are formed by brothers but they can include unrelated cheetah males as well even though the Individual males usually are not overly territorial but groups that have formed partnerships can be. In fact, because there is a fair amount of fighting over living space and food resources among unrelated cheetah partnerships the female now outnumber the males. When it comes to fighting or defending land and food against lions, hyenas or the others large predators, cheetahs often use avoidance as their main tactic. This can make them avoid a confrontation with another large predator because the Cheetahs have many advantages in the stealth and speed category but they are not built for fighting like some other predators are. Cheetahs only need water once every four to five days but they require six to eight pounds of food daily and that will makes them hunting of prey and competing for food once they capture their prey. It is very common for larger predators to steal a cheetah’s captured prey once it has been killed even though they do their best to move their captured prey to a safe area that is concealed from other predators but if they are discovered by a lion or hyena, a cheetah will often abandon its food and avoid the confrontation.