The cheetah is one of the medium-sized wild cats found in a variety of different habitats across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The habitat and habitat of the cheetah
The cheetah not only has the largest range of all the big cats but is actually one of the most adaptable and is found in a variety of different habitats.
It is commonly found throughout sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia.
There are also small, isolated groups of cheetahs that live in A remote geography in the Far East, North Africa and Arabia, the cheetah can be found
inhabiting many different regions provided there is a good source of cover and an ample supply of food including tropical rainforests, tree-lined savannas, arid deserts and mountainous highlands.
One of the reasons they believe it still survives successfully in most of its natural range is that the cheetah has adapted to the increasing presence of people and is
known to live and hunt in areas close to urban activity, however, in some parts of its natural range populations are under threat of habitat loss.
Natural due to deforestation and the increase of settlements.
Cheetah behavior and lifestyle
The cheetah is a solitary animal that hunts on the ground and in the trees.
They ambush, rather than lose huge amounts of energy in a high-speed chase, and once the prey is caught and killed it is dragged to safety either into dense.
The cheetah is a solitary animal that marks its territory using scent markings and through the issuance of jagged vocalizations.
It is said to make a sound like sawing rough wood, and home range sizes vary depending on the habitat and available food, but those of male cheetahs are
much larger than their female counterparts, which often overlap with the ranges of The number of males and other females (sometimes by up to 40%).
Reproduction and life cycle of the cheetah
During its natural range, the cheetah does not have a distinct breeding season with females, instead it is able to reproduce every two months, and after a
gestation period that lasts about three months, the female cheetah gives birth to between 2 to 6 cubs that are born blind and weigh only half a kilogram, and are considered cubs.
Cheetahs are incredibly vulnerable in the wild and so remain hidden in dense vegetation until they can follow their mothers between 6 and 8 weeks of age, camouflaged by their dark, woolly fur and fuzzy spots.
After weaning at the age of about three months, the cheetah cubs will stay with their mother for another 18 months until they are ready to mate again and encourage their young to establish
their own areas independently, and although male cheetahs live an isolated life except when mating, a group of females Cheetahs tend to overlap
with their mothers, and cheetahs tend to live for between ten and fifteen years in the wild depending on the habitat and available food supply.
Interesting facts about cheetah
It was originally thought that the cheetah was a hybrid of a lion and a jaguar.
The cheetah has been the subject of a lot of genetic confusion and was not properly distinguished until just over 100 years ago.
Some of the confusion is believed to come from the black cheetah, which is a cheetah with an all-black coat of fur.
With sometimes faint markings, a genetic mutation known as melanism that causes large amounts of dark pigment to appear in the skin and fur is recognized
by a number of mammalian species, and black panthers tend to occur in dense forests with a larger population in South Asia than in Africa.
They are born into an offspring that also contains yellow cubs.
The black leopard is fairly common and surprisingly enough, it is believed that up to 50% of the leopards found in the dense tropical rainforests of the Malay Peninsula are black.
The most important threats facing the cheetah
Due to the fact that the cheetah is a stealthy and apex predator throughout its natural habitat, in general, the greatest threat to an adult cheetah is other cheetahs, along with the occasional lion or leopard that can get close enough, and Nile crocodiles which are also a threat due to their strength.
Formidable, extreme aggression, and willingness to sink their fangs into anything, they are known to challenge cheetahs that cross water bodies and win, and snakes are considered a particularly formidable enemy, and they are known to overcome these beautiful predators.
However, young cheetah cubs are more vulnerable and the fact that they have many natural predators causes them to remain hidden in dense vegetation for the first two months, although during times when their mothers are out hunting cheetah cubs are more threatened by hyenas and cubs.
It houses lions, leopards, snakes, and birds of prey. Despite the cheetah's ability to adapt to different environments, cheetah populations in parts of its natural range are declining due to habitat loss in the timber industry, farming.
Is the cheetah threatened with extinction
Today, the cheetah is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as an animal that is not extinct in its natural environment as the populations are stable in most of its wide natural range.
However, a number of cheetah subspecies are considered either endangered or vulnerable to extinction in their original habitats One of them is now extinct.
It is believed that this is due to the fact that these groups are either small or geographically isolated and are severely affected by local hunting and habitat loss.
For example, the Javan leopard from the Indonesian island of Java is considered one of the most endangered animals in the world. However, in A number of African countries cheetah is still legally hunted as trophy by sport hunters