What do cheetahs eat?
Cheetahs are one of the world’s most impressive predators.
However, their hunting speed and sharp claws only account for half of their success in Africa.
In fact, cheetahs have a unique diet that allows them to be specialized hunters.
They cannot afford to miss their prey with a clumsy hunt.
As a result, a cheetah’s diet depends on certain parts of their prey that they can’t get from any other source.
What Cheetahs Eat
A cheetah’s diet depends on the type of prey it hunts, but all cheetah diets require both flesh and bones.
The flesh provides protein and essential nutrients to keep the big cat’s body healthy and strong for a successful hunt.
The bones contain calcium, which the cheetah uses to maintain strong teeth and bones.
Cheetahs chew their food well enough to swallow it whole.
However, they also need bone fragments in order to get all of the nutritional value that is part of every prey animal.
How Do Cheetahs Get Their Prey?
Cheetahs prefer hunting animals that are slow and timid, but even fast prey must sleep.
When a cheetah hunts during the day, it stalks its prey until the animal is too tired to run away. As long as the cheetah is patient enough to wait for an opportunity, it can eventually catch anything in Africa.
When they are hunting at night, cheetahs are more likely to hunt animals that are smaller.
The cheetah’s average prey weighs about 40 pounds.
The cat, however, prefers to catch animals that weigh less than 30 pounds.
Since many small African animals do not have much meat on their bones, the cheetah has an extremely high need for calcium in order to make up for the nutritional value its prey lacks.
The cheetah’s jaw has evolved to be wider and more powerful than most cats’, allowing it to easily crush large bones.
Cheetahs can even chew up antelope leg bones, which are about an inch thick!
What To Watch For
Cheetahs are large predators, but you might not notice them in the African grasslands.
The mammals have evolved to be camouflaged, blending in with their surroundings so that prey won’t see them coming.
The cat is easy to recognize, with its distinctive black “tear marks” that run down the sides of the nose and big black spots all over its body.
The fur is usually tan or beige in color, but some cheetahs have white fur around their four paws so that they look like walking tennis balls from a distance!
