Photographs of Cheetahs by Yvonne van der Mey

Most people know the cheetah as the fastest land animal. Tall and lean, built for speed and hunting by chasing its prey. It is my absolutely highlight when I encounter one. I love the expression on its face, with the beautiful black striped mask. I always see them as the underdog of the predator family. Nearly every other predator is a threat to the cheetah, it's cubs and it's prey. Unlike the other predators, the Cheetah does not scavenge, they only eat fresh meat, and are not able to defend it, like hyenas and lion do, or take the prey out of reach like the leopard does.

Whenever they catch their prey, they have to eat as much as they can as fast as they can. Cheetah are often solitairy, but you might meet a female with her older cubs, or two or more older cubs still in a pack to survive. Sometimes you see two mature males living in a pack, as this makes them more succesful at hunting. The cubs simply melt your heart with their fluffy heads and faces and are ever so playful.

To see cheetah hunting, most of the time alone, is very impressive and very often takes a lot of time. They stalk their prey first, until they get within a critical range, and then strike and run. They can accelerate in just 3 seconds up to a speed of about 100 km's an hour. They can't keep up with that speed for a long time, because they become overheated very quickly. When they have killed their prey, they have to cool down for some time, before they can start to eat.

Some people find it hard to see the difference between Leopard and Cheetah. Cheetahs are much leaner and taller than leopards, and have a smaller head since everything about this animal is especially adapted to high speeds. The number of cheetahs in Africa has been declined dramatically in the past few decennia, for various reasons. Farmers see them as competitors, and many cheetah's outside the gameparks are being shot, poisoned or trapped. This magnificent animal deserves all the help and protection it possibly can get.

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