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Photo: James Temple · CC BY 2.0

SpeciesCarnivoraFelidae

Carnivores

🐆Cheetah

Acinonyx jubatus (Schreber, 1775)

The cheetah is a species of large feline and the only living member of the genus Acinonyx. The cheetah is a pursuit predator and the fastest land animal, capable of running at 93–104 km/h (58–65 mph); it has evolved for speed, having powerful hindlimb muscles, long limbs and a flexible spine. The cheetah has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, with a short snout and black tear-like facial streaks. It has a height of 67–94 cm (2.20–3.08 ft) at the shoulder, and the head-and-body length is between 1.1 and 1.5 m. Adults weigh between 21 and 65 kg.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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406

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Measurements

vs you

≈ half your weight

Conservation status

VUVulnerable

IUCN Red List assessment, 2024.

Population trendDecreasing

Key measurements

Body mass: 51 kg
Body length: 1.49 m
Shoulder height: 0.8 m
Top speed: 104 km/h
Bite force: 472 N
Maximum lifespan: 20 years

All measurements ↓

Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Cheetah

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass

51 kg

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

Female35 kgWikidataQ23907
Male40 kgWikidataQ23907

Figures vary

54 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high

Body length

1.49 m

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height

0.8 m0.7–0.9 m · typical range

Details ↓

Sex not specified in source; value is the midpoint of the published range.

Source: Krausman & Morales 2005, Mammalian Species 771, p.2 · see citation

Top speed

104 km/h

Details ↓

MEASURED: mean of three timed runs over a 201.2 m course with a running start (29 m/s). The fastest speed ever recorded from a FREE-RANGING cheetah is lower -- 93 km/h across 367 hunts by GPS and inertial collar (Wilson et al. 2013, Nature 498:185) -- and most hunts were far slower. Hirt's 120 km/h is speedofanimals.com.

Source: Sharp 1997, J Zool 241:493 (timed run) · see citation

Bite force

472 N

Details ↓

Canine bite modelled by the dry-skull method (Thomason 1991) from a prepared skull; static bite at the canines, gape not stated. Not a live measurement. The skull's estimated body mass was 29.5 kg.

Source: Wroe, McHenry & Thomason 2005, Proc R Soc B 272:619, Table 1 · see citation

Bite force for its size

119

Details ↓

Bite force normalised for body mass: the residual of canine bite force regressed on body mass, average across the sample set to 100. Above 100 means the animal bites harder than its size predicts. Do not cross-check against Wikipedia's BFQ table, which silently mixes this paper with Christiansen & Wroe 2007 and cites a popular-science book.

Source: Wroe, McHenry & Thomason 2005, Proc R Soc B 272:619, Table 1 · see citation

Brain mass

115 g

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan

20 years

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0