Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus): Speed, Facts, Habitat and Diet

What does a cheetah look like?

The cheetah’s coat is tawny to pale buff with a white belly, covered in roughly 2,000 solid, round black spots about 3–5 cm (1.2–2 in) across. Unlike a leopard’s rosettes, these spots are filled in. Every cheetah has its own spot pattern, which lets researchers recognize individuals from photographs.

The face is the giveaway: two black “tear marks” run from the inner corner of each eye down to the mouth. Their purpose is not proven; they may reduce glare from the sun or make facial expressions easier to read. The head is small and rounded, the eyes sit high on the face, and the ears are short.

The long tail is spotted for most of its length and ends in four to six dark rings and a white tuft. Young cubs look very different from adults: they are dark, with a long, smoky-gray mantle of fur along the back that fades as they grow. A rare coat variant called the “king cheetah” has large blotches and dark stripes along the back. It is caused by a recessive gene variant, identified in 2012, and is not a separate species.

How big is a cheetah?

Cheetahs are tall and light for a big cat, with a deep chest, a narrow waist and long, thin legs. Males are on average a little larger than females.

A leopard of similar length is shorter in the leg but much heavier and more muscular. Our cheetah vs leopard guide compares the two cats side by side.

How fast can a cheetah run?

The cheetah’s speed has been measured, not just guessed. In a timed test published in 1997, a tame cheetah chasing a lure averaged 29 m per second, about 104 km/h (65 mph), over a 201 m (220 yd) course with a running start. In the wild, a team led by Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College fitted five cheetahs in northern Botswana with collars combining GPS and motion sensors and recorded 367 runs. The fastest reached 93 km/h (58 mph), but most hunts were run at moderate speeds.

Popular figures of 110–120 km/h (70–75 mph) come from older, poorly documented measurements and are not supported by modern data. What sets the cheetah apart is not only top speed but acceleration and braking: the collared cheetahs could gain or lose several meters per second in a single stride. Read more in How fast is a cheetah? and in our list of the fastest animals.

Its whole body is built for sprinting. A very flexible spine coils and stretches with each bound, so a single stride can cover about 4–7 m (13–23 ft). The claws are blunt and only partly retractable, so they grip the ground like the spikes on running shoes. The long tail works as a rudder during sharp turns, and the hind-leg muscles contain a high share of fast, powerful muscle fibers.

Where do cheetahs live?

Cheetahs prefer open country where they can spot prey and chase it: savanna, grassland, open woodland and semi-desert. They rarely enter dense forest. Most live in eastern and southern Africa, in areas such as the Serengeti, the Kalahari and the farmland of Namibia. Small, scattered groups survive in dry mountain ranges of the Sahara and West Africa, and in the hilly deserts of central Iran.

The species once ranged across most of Africa and from the Arabian Peninsula to India and Central Asia. Today it occupies only about 9 percent of its historical range in Africa. The largest population, close to 4,000 animals, is spread across Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Angola and Mozambique, and roughly 1,000 more live in Kenya and Tanzania. Most other populations are small and isolated.

In Asia, only the Asiatic cheetah remains, in Iran, where surveys suggest a few dozen animals at most. Cheetahs died out in India in the mid-20th century. In 2022, cheetahs from Namibia were released into Kuno National Park, followed by animals from South Africa, in a long-term attempt to bring the species back.

What do cheetahs eat and how do they hunt?

Cheetahs are carnivores that usually hunt animals weighing less than 40 kg (88 lb). Their main prey changes from region to region: Thomson’s gazelles in the Serengeti, impala in eastern and southern African woodland, springbok in the dry southwest, and dorcas and dama gazelles in the Sahara. They also catch hares and other small animals. Male coalitions and mothers with large cubs sometimes tackle bigger prey.

Unlike lions and leopards, cheetahs hunt mainly in daylight, especially in the morning and late afternoon, which helps them avoid larger predators that are active at night. A cheetah watches for prey from a termite mound, a low branch or a rise, then stalks to within about 30–70 m (100–230 ft) before launching its sprint. In full chase it knocks the prey off balance with a forepaw, hooking it with the sharp dewclaw on the inside of the leg, and then kills it with a suffocating bite to the throat.

Chases are short. In the Botswana collar study they averaged about 170 m (560 ft), and the longest was 559 m (1,834 ft). Hunting success is commonly estimated at 25–40 percent overall. Cheetahs eat fast and stay alert, because lions, spotted hyenas and leopards often steal their kills.

How do cheetahs behave?

Adult females live alone or with their cubs. They wander over large home ranges that follow the movement of prey, from about 34 km² (13 sq mi) in prey-rich South African reserves to several thousand square kilometers in the dry farmland of central Namibia.

Many males form lifelong groups called coalitions, usually two or three brothers from the same litter, although unrelated males sometimes join. A coalition can win and hold a territory more easily than a lone male, and coalition members tend to be in better condition. Other males live alone, and some roam widely without settling in a territory.

Cheetahs cannot roar. They communicate with a high, bird-like chirp, a stuttering “churr,” growls and hisses, and a loud purr. Males mark their territories by spraying urine on trees, rocks and termite mounds, and other cheetahs sniff these posts to learn who has passed by.

Reproduction, cubs and lifespan

Cheetahs can breed at any time of year. Females usually have their first litter at two to three years old. After a pregnancy of about three months, the mother gives birth in long grass or thick vegetation, typically to three or four cubs, although larger litters occur.

The mother hides the litter and moves the cubs to a new lair every few days to make them harder for predators to find. Cubs start following her at about two months, are weaned at four to six months, and practice their hunting skills on live prey their mother catches for them. They stay with her until they are around 18–20 months old, and littermates may remain together for several more months.

Cub deaths are very high. Lions and spotted hyenas are the main killers, and in some areas, such as the open plains of the Serengeti, most cubs die before they become independent. Wild cheetahs that reach adulthood usually live around 6–10 years, and some females have lived to about 14. In zoos, cheetahs can reach 17 to 20 years.

Threats and conservation status

The IUCN Red List classifies the cheetah as Vulnerable, with a decreasing population, in its most recent assessment published in 2024. The Asiatic cheetah of Iran is assessed separately as Critically Endangered. International commercial trade in cheetahs is banned under CITES Appendix I.

The main threats are:

• Habitat loss and fragmentation. Cheetahs need huge areas, and about three-quarters of their range lies outside protected areas, on farmland and rangeland.
• Conflict with livestock farmers. Cheetahs sometimes kill goats, sheep or calves and are shot or trapped in return, especially in southern Africa.
• Loss of prey through overhunting and competition with livestock.
• Illegal trade in cubs and skins, a particular problem in the Horn of Africa.
• Road traffic, which kills cheetahs in Iran and elsewhere.

Cheetahs also have unusually low genetic diversity, the result of severe population crashes thousands of years ago, which may leave them less able to cope with disease. Conservation groups such as the Cheetah Conservation Fund, founded in Namibia in 1990, work with farmers to reduce conflict, for example by placing livestock guarding dogs with herds.

Cheetah myths and facts

Myth: cheetahs can run at 120 km/h (75 mph). The fastest reliably measured speed is about 104 km/h (65 mph), and wild hunting cheetahs have been recorded at up to 93 km/h (58 mph).

Myth: cheetahs give up chases because they overheat. A 2013 study that logged the body temperature of four free-living cheetahs found an average of 38.4 °C (101.1 °F) when chases ended, which is normal. Their temperature rose more after successful hunts, probably from the stress of guarding a kill.

Myth: the king cheetah is a separate species or a cheetah-leopard hybrid. It is an ordinary cheetah with a rare coat pattern caused by a recessive gene.

Myth: cheetahs cannot retract their claws. Their claws are partly retractable; they simply lack the protective sheath that keeps other cats’ claws sharp.

Cheetahs and people

Cheetahs were tamed long before they were studied. Ancient Egyptian royalty kept them, and nobles from the Middle East to India used trained cheetahs to hunt antelope, which is why they were once called “hunting leopards.” The Mughal emperor Akbar is said to have kept around 1,000. Captive cheetahs very rarely bred, so new ones kept being caught from the wild, which is thought to have added to the species’ decline in India.

Today the cheetah is one of the most popular animals on African safaris and a symbol of speed in art and advertising. Its future depends largely on people sharing the land with it, especially farmers outside national parks.