Cheetahs 'more powerful than a motorbike'

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/cheetahs-powerful-motorbike-study


According to a study, it is its ability to accelerate, slow down and quickly change direction that makes the cheetah such a good hunter, rather than mere speed. Photograph: Christophe Beaudufe/AFP/Getty Images

Cheetahs can generate four times the maximum power output of Usain Bolt when they sprint and have a manouveribility unmatched by any other animal when hunting prey, according to scientists who tracked the big cats in their natural habitat.

"[Cheetahs] are getting lateral accelerations bigger than a motorbike can achieve," said Alan Wilson of the UK's Royal Veterinary College. "They're operating at the extreme of athletic performance."

His team attached collars, enabled with GPS and accelerometers, to five wild cheetahs in the Okavango Delta in Botswana and tracked the speed and fancy footwork of 367 runs by the animals over the course of a year.

They recorded a top speed of 58mph – making cheetahs the fastest land animal on Earth – but the average was much lower, around 31.5mph. Most of the runs were under 45mph. "When you consider a racehorse or greyhound goes at 40mph, that's quite impressive," said Wilson. His results are published on Thursday in Nature.

[hlthe2b]

1. Not surprised.. They are truly amazing animals.

They are so darned lean and muscular--they must be nearly aerodynamic.

[happyslug]

2. And they must learn to hunt, unlike other cats.

Tigers, Lions, Leopards, Jaugar and the other cats all hunt by instinct, how they hunt in inborn to them.

Cheetahs and their cousins the American Mountain Lion, must be taught how to hunt. In the wild by their mothers, in captivity by man.

http://www.outtoafrica.nl/animals/engcheetah.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheetah


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar

The exact relationship between Cougars and Cheetahs are unknown. They are related closer to each other then to the other large cats (Through how close is presently being debated due to lack of evidence). At one time the Puma was included in the family of the House Cat, but due to DNA research the Puma and the Jaguarundi were given their own sub-family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguarundi

The sub-families of Leopardus, Lynx, Puma, Prionailurus, and Felis all decend from a common ancestor that immigrated to North America about 8 million years ago (Before the ice age).

Now Felis stayed around the Mediterranean Sea, but the other cats mentioned above developed in North America and then migrated to South America about 3 million years ago when Central America became land.

All this puts into question what is the relationship between the Puma and the Cheetah? One extinct puma was larger then the Modern Cheetah and as fast. This was the American Cheetah, we have a good idea how it looked and its speed from the bones found, but not much else (including DNA).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheetah

Present theory is the American Cheetah and the True Cheetah just evolved from a common ancestor that also lead to the Puma (With the True Cheetah evolving in Africa and the American Cheetah in the Great Plains). Alternative theory is the American Cheetah evolved from the Puma and the True Cheetah evolved from the American Cheetah after the American Cheetah had migrated back to the old world. Both theories have problems, basically lack of evidence. These three cats are related somehow but we just do not how. The chief problem is Cheetahs had a recent DNA Bottleneck (About 10,000 years ago) so all have very similar genes, so similar the fur grafted from one Cheetah in Africa can be transferred to another Cheetah from Asia without rejection.

Cougars have a similar bottleneck about the same time period, about 10,000 years ago. These separate bottle necks makes using DNA hard.

[pscot]

3. But they're a bitch to ride