International Cheetah Day丨It’s the king of speed and has a strong “gang of men”, but this “big cat” is not happy?

It has a slender body, sometimes elegant, sometimes swift and fierce, a bit of "contrasting cuteness". Some people always call it "leopard", but in fact, it is very different from leopard, it is a cheetah. December 4th of each year is International Cheetah Day, and today is its festival.

The cheetah's light, agile, streamlined body makes it an efficient sprinter. (Source: Wikipedia)

The cute contrast of the " big cat ": " King of Speed " or " Chichi Monster "

The cheetah is the fastest animal in the animal kingdom, and it can accelerate from a standstill to 100 kilometers per hour in 4 seconds. On land, no animal can run faster in a straight line than it.

For such a sharp predator, it would be reasonable for it to let out a loud roar to scare off its prey or enemies, right?

The cheetah said: I really can't do this. In fact, the cheetah's call is sometimes very different from its identity as a big cat. For example, it will make a chirping sound like a bird...

This has to do with its physiological structure. In biological taxonomy, cheetahs belong to the subfamily Felinae, while lions, tigers and leopards belong to the subfamily Pantherinae. A key physiological difference between these two subfamilies:

Cats such as lions and tigers have stretchable elastic ligaments in the hyoid bone under the tongue, which expands the vocal tract. This feature allows these large cats to roar, but animals in the subfamily Felinae do not have this structure, so cheetahs can't do it!

According to research, cheetahs can make a variety of sounds, including meowing, purring, howling, chirring, chirping, hissing, etc. to convey different emotions and information, but they don't have a terrifying roar.

Moreover, although cheetahs run fast, they also sacrifice some things. The fighting power of cheetahs is not as good as other "big cats" of the same size. Their claws become blunt due to friction because they cannot be retracted. Their heads are small and their jaws do not have a strong bite force. Therefore, the prey that cheetahs catch is usually small, unless they can form a small group.

A different kind of men's gang

There are small groups in the cheetah world. There are two ways to organize small groups:

▲Mother and child team: female cheetah + cheetah cub (called a "family group")

Generally speaking, regardless of the type of mammal, females will live with their young for at least some time. This pattern is the basic organizational form of mammal groups and the cornerstone of forming larger groups.

A female cheetah and her two cubs at Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Source: Wikipedia)

▲Men’s Gang: Male Cheetah + Male Cheetah (All males)

This kind of organization is not very common in mammals, and the "friendship" between males in the group is often very fragile, and fighting and even breaking up within the group are very common. But the male association of cheetahs is different, and their friendship is as solid as that between male lions .

Male cheetahs usually form permanent groups of 2-4 members, the main members of which are often related by blood - usually brothers.

Cheetah "gang" in Kenya's Masai Mara Game Reserve (Source: Wikipedia)

Sometimes the group will accept an unrelated male into the group, but the test is quite strict. A lone male who tries to join the group may be driven away, and if he refuses to leave, he may be attacked or even killed.

Even if it was taken in, in the first few years, the new companion was the lowest status one. It could not get too close to the original pair of brothers. They stayed together in the shade of the trees, but it could only bask in the sun, and was beaten from time to time. It probably took a few years of such miserable days for it to truly integrate into the group.

For Cheetahs, forming a consortium has huge benefits.

First, they have stronger defense capabilities. The association has a territory, and they will drive away other males that enter the territory, and they will also have territorial disputes with other associations. With a territory, there are more opportunities to mate with female cheetahs passing by or staying in the territory.

Secondly, the alliance will be able to catch larger prey. It is usually difficult for a cheetah to kill large prey such as adult wildebeest, antelope or wildebeest, but the alliance can. Therefore, even if the alliance is reluctant, it will take in new members, even if the new members are tortured, they will try their best to be accepted by the alliance.

Cheetahs should be very proud of being the king of speed and having a powerful group. But for now, they are not "happy"!

They are a little unhappy!

Currently, the survival of the cheetah is seriously threatened and is listed as "Vulnerable (VU)" on the Red List of the World Conservation Union.

The number of cheetahs has decreased by 77% in Africa. In North Africa, except for southern Algeria and Egypt, cheetahs are extinct; the situation in Asia is even worse, with only Iran having a population of less than 100. It can even be said that although cheetahs are recognized as vulnerable species worldwide, the Asian cheetah is in a critically endangered state and may become extinct at any time.

The history and current distribution range of cheetahs (Source: Wikipedia)

Why is this happening? In addition to being hunted for their fur or by locals who worry that cheetahs may harm their livestock, the vast grasslands suitable for cheetahs to run on are becoming increasingly scarce .

The fences built by people on grasslands are extremely dangerous for large animals that are good at running. They often cannot detect the wire mesh on the fence from a long distance, and when they run close, they are unable to avoid it and are often hit, cut or entangled. This is especially true for the cheetah, the king of speed.

Another dilemma is that cheetahs are almost impossible to breed artificially - humans began domesticating cheetahs to help with hunting thousands of years ago, which is also the origin of their name, but until modern times, there have been only a handful of cases of breeding cheetahs.

The last three wild cheetahs in India were shot by Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo in Surguja in 1947 (Source: Wikipedia)

One very important reason is that the gene pool of the cheetah population is very simple. They may have experienced extreme decline during the Ice Age . The contemporary cheetahs are likely the descendants of the very few survivors at that time . Therefore, the contemporary cheetah population looks very similar to the inbred population in genetics. The mortality rate of cheetah cubs is very high and they are also very sensitive to diseases .

Cheetahs are a wonderful animal that is a treasure of the evolution of life on Earth. It is very sad to see the cheetah population gradually decline. In order to protect cheetahs, under the promotion of conservation biologist Laurie Marker, December 4th of each year is designated as International Cheetah Day, hoping to attract more attention and hope that their conservation work will have a major breakthrough in the future, so that these surviving "big cats" can exist on this planet for a longer time.

Author: Ran Hao, Distinguished Researcher, Key Laboratory of Ecology and Environmental Protection of Rare and Endangered Plants and Animals, Ministry of Education (Guangxi Normal University)

Reviewer : Wang Dehua, Professor of School of Life Sciences, Shandong University

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Produced by: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., China Science and Technology Publishing House (Beijing) Digital Media Co., Ltd.