With 4 recorded cheetah sightings through the month of April, it is only fitting for the cheetah to be our species of the month!
As the fastest land mammal, this slender cat is rare to see, particularly in this part of the lowveld. Cheetahs are known to avoid leopards, lions, and hyenas, and with our density of those being so high it isn’t a mystery why we don’t see them more often!
Female cheetahs are mostly solitary, although they have been known to group together when they have cubs in East Africa. Males are more commonly seen in coalitions.
Although we consider the cheetah a big cat, it is actually not that closely related to lions and leopards - in fact, it is in a genus all on its own. It is not able to roar or growl, but rather hisses and purrs - more like a small cat! It also does not have retractable claws, unlike leopards and lions.
For these reasons, we don’t consider a cheetah to be a “Panther” or to be part of the Panthera genus (leopards, lions, jaguars, and tigers).
Fun fact:
When you look closely at a cheetah’s spots, they have a 3-D effect, like bubble wrap!
This is due to the different textures and fibres of the gold and black hairs of their coats.
Words by Tess Woollgar, images courtesy of Canva.