Despite the cheetah being the fastest living land mammal, we know remarkably little about how it attains such high top speeds (29 m s(-1)). Here we aim to describe and quantify the musculoskeletal anatomy of the cheetah forelimb and compare it to the racing greyhound, an animal of similar mass, but which can only attain a top speed of 17 m s(-1). Measurements were made of muscle mass, fascicle ...

We examined 1,092 skulls of captive and free-living individuals, representing 33 felid species, to determine the prevalence of focal palatine erosion (FPE). FPE was detected in 3.2% of cats evaluated, including cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and 14 other felid species. The prevalence of FPE between cheetah (9.4%; n = 64) and non-cheetah species (2.8%; n = 1,028) (χ(2) test; P = 0.004) and between c...

The cheetah lineage is a group of large, slender, and long-limbed cats with a distinctive skull and dental morphology, of which only the extant cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is present today. The lineage is characterized by having abbreviated, tall, and domed crania, and a trenchant dentition with a much reduced, posteriorly placed protocone on the upper carnassial. In this article, we report on a...

Data are presented on the demography and reproductive success of cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) living on the Serengeti Plains, Tanzania over a 25-year period. Average age at independence was 17.1 months, females gave birth to their ®rst litter at approximately 2.4 years old, interbirth interval was 20.1 months, and average litter size at independence was 2.1 cubs. Females who survived to independ...

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 (a...

The Asian cheetah is known as Iranian panther. A four years old female cheetah was killed in a road accident by a truck in Abbas Abad (Biarjamand) County around Shahrood City in Semnan Province, central part of Iran. Two days after the accident the carcass of animal was autopsied and only five cestodes were obtained from its intestine. In inspection of other organs no other helminth was observe...

Two North American fossil species of large felids, hitherto regarded as Late Cenozoic pumas (mountain lion), are in fact closely related to the living cheetah, Acinonyx, of Africa and Eurasia. A new subgenus (Miracinonyx) is proposed for the American species. Cheetahs and pumas may have had a common ancestor in the Miocene of North America.