Cheetah

Fun facts

• The fastest land animal — capable of 0 to 100 km/h in roughly three seconds and topping out near 110 km/h over a 400-metre sprint.
• Cheetahs are not "true" big cats — they cannot roar; instead they chirp, purr, and yelp, and they retract their claws only partly, keeping a sprinter's grip on the ground.
• The famous black "tear marks" running from each eye down to the mouth are thought to reduce midday glare and help the cat track prey at speed through bright savannah light.
• A single hunt costs an enormous metabolic price — the cheetah's body temperature can rise past 40°C in under a minute, forcing the cat to rest for up to 30 minutes before it can feed.
• The species suffers from severe inbreeding depression; modern populations are descended from a tiny ancestral bottleneck about 10,000 years ago, which is why ex-situ programs are unusually important.