Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)- Data, Pictures & Videos

[Acinonyx sp.]

Timed running speed of a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) 

Introduction 
The cheetah is generally believed to be the fastest running animal, but its maximum speed has been uncertain. A widely-quoted speed of 71 miles per hour (32ms-’) has been discredited: a tame animal was claimed to have run 80 yards (73 m) in 2.25 s, but the enclosure in which the run was made was later shown to be only 65 yards (59 m) long (Hildebrand, 1959, who also remarks that the time is very imprecise, and that there is an error of arithmetic). Hildebrand’s own (1961) estimate of 56 miles per hour (25ms-’) does not come from a timed run over a measured distance, but was obtained by analysing film, taking the scale of distance from an estimated length of the animal’s body. The measurements reported in this paper were made in 1965, but are published only now because the author was not aware that previously published records were unreliable.

Method 
The subject was an adult female cheetah weighing approximately 35 kg, which had been orphaned as a cub, and reared on Kenplains Farm, Athi River, Kenya, by Dr David Hopcraft. She was returned to the wild, but visited Kenplains occasionally. The measurements were made on one of these visits, between 10:00 h and 11 :30 h, on firm level ground with a slight covering of murram dust. There was insufficient wind to move wool hanging vertically from a post. A 220 yard (201.2 m) course was measured, with a surveyor’s tape, and marked with 2 posts at each end. The posts at the start had a taut length of white wool tied between them, approximately 0.45 m from the ground. A clear line was drawn between the posts at the finish. The author, who undertook the timing, was then a current athletics coach well used to hand-timing. He used an analogue stopwatch (Omega), reading to 0.1 s, which had been calibrated against 2 stopwatches in The Voice of Kenya broadcasting house, and 2 stopwatches of the Kenya Amateur Athletics Association. Each trial was started with the cheetah held 18m behind the start line. A running start was decided upon as hunting cheetah launch into their major sprint from a moving start, and sustained maximum running speed over a reasonable distance was the desired parameter. An open Landrover stood, with engine running, about 75 m down the course. The stopwatch operator stood in the back of the Land Rover holding a piece of meat which had been shown to the cheetah. On a command, the cheetah was released, and when the timer saw her break the wool at the start he activated the stopwatch. The Land Rover accelerated down the course and stopped after the finish line, when the meat was thrown down. The watch was stopped at the instant when the cheetah’s anterior thorax was deemed to have crossed the finish line. Three runs were made, with successive runs in opposite directions. A 30 min rest was allowed between trials. 

Results and discussion 
The recorded times were 7.0, 6.9 and 7.2 s. The mean time of 7.0 s gives a speed of 29 m s-' (64 miles per hour). The only other large animals for which accurate, reliable speeds have been published are greyhounds and racehorses. Data from the sporting pages of newspapers show that most greyhound races are won at 15-16ms-', and most horse races of less than one mile (1.6km) at 16-17m s-'. The highest horse speed recorded by Matthews (1994) is 19.2ms-' over 402m. The times used to calculate these speeds were all measured from a standing start, so are not strictly comparable with the speed of 29 m s-' for the cheetah. Nevertheless, it is clear that the cheetah is very much faster than horses or dogs. Garland (1983) quotes a speed of 20 m s-' or more for 17 species of mammal. Apart from the cheetah (the discredited record discussed in the Introduction), these are Vulpes fulva, two species of Lepus and 13 ungulate species. For the great majority of these, there is no information about the method of measuring speed. Indeed, the speeds may be mere subjective estimates. In six cases the speeds are recorded as being speedometer readings, but these cannot be accepted as reliable unless the animal is running close to the vehicle, parallel to it in a straight line, and the speedometer calibration has been checked. There is no assurance that these conditions were ever met. Elliot, Cowan & Holling (1977) filmed lion attacks on various prey. Triangulation from two cameras, or a grid marked on the ground, enabled them to measure speeds. They measured each animal's speed at intervals as it accelerated and estimated maximum speed by fitting a curve to the data. They obtained a value of 26.5 m s-' for Gazella thomsoni (and much lower speeds for other animals). Unfortunately, they show no points on their graphs of speed against time, so we cannot tell whether this speed was actually observed or is merely an extrapolation from the earlier stages of acceleration. Thus the speed of 29 ni s-', recorded for the cheetah in this paper, is by far the highest reliablyrecorded running speed for any animal. Reply