Some interesting facts about cheetahs

Measuring  cheetahs' dynamic parameters  

It has been known for many decades that the cheetah (aka the hunting leopard) is the fastest mammal on Earth. It can run as fast as 65 mph (105 km/h). In India and the Middle East people tamed cheetahs and used them for hunting deer and other prey. This big cat became extinct in India, and now there is a program of reintroduction of cheetahs there.

The measurement of the top speed of the cheetah was made for the first time in 1965, and since then the cheetah has been resting on laurels.

However, high speed is not the only, and probably, not the main trait needed for successful hunting, – Alan Watson, professor of locomotive biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College, says. Acceleration, maneuverability and deceleration are also of extreme importance.

A team of researches led by the professor decided to measure some of the dynamic parameters of cheetahs using collars equipped with accelerometers, a microcomputer and a radio transmitter. Scientists tested these collars on cheetahs from a zoo, but never registered speed higher than 40 mph (64 km/h). This is even lower than the greyhound dogs can make. So, researchers decided to measure the dynamics of wild cheetahs.

A wild cheetah would not let you put a collar on its neck. Scientists used shots of tranquilizers to make animals sleep for a short time, then put collars on them while they were sleeping. The collars have one-year autonomy. During this period scientists could trace the radio signals and periodically approach cheetahs using SUVs or small aircraft to offload data collected by the microcomputer from the sensors.

The collected data approximately confirmed the maximum speed as approximately the same as was measured back in 1965. It was found that females can run slightly faster than males. It was measured that cheetahs can maintain their top speed by no more than 10 seconds.

But what is more important, it was measured that cheetahs can accelerate at 1.5 g (that is, about 15 meters per second squared) virtually in any direction. This gives them possibility not only to gain speed very quickly (from zero to 100 km/h in about 2 seconds), but also to abruptly change direction of their run and to quickly decelerate.

Modern cars can move much faster than cheetahs, but their maximum acceleration determined by the grip between the wheels and the road does not exceed 0.8 g on dry asphalt.

Now the scientists are planning to develop similar collars for domestic cats. "We know less about domestic cats than about cheetahs, lions and tigers," – professor says.

This text is based on the information presented in the "Material World" radio program broadcasted by the BBC on 13 June 2013.