A comparative acoustic analysis of purring in juvenile, subadult and adult cheetahs

Previous studies of cheetah purring have described purring in adult cheetahs. This paper extends the cheetah purring research to include juvenile and subadult cheetahs and analyzes purring data from cheetahs in ages ranging from 7 months to 7 years, and with weights ranging from 18 kilos to over 70 kilos. Results show that while there is considerable variation across most parameters analysed (amplitude, phase duration, cycles per phase and fundamental frequency), mainly attributable to degree of relaxation/agitation, previously reported observations that ingressive phases tend to be lower in frequency are largely confirmed, with one notable exception.