Cheetah Handicaps In Competition With Other Species

Cheetahs are handicapped, for example, by the very fact that they can perform spectacular high-speed chases. To catch its breath after making a kill, a cheetah may need to lie panting for up to 30 minutes before it can even begin to eat. During this resting period, hyenas, lions, leopards, and even flocks of vultures may steal the winded cat's kill. According to Caro, 1 in 10 cheetah kills is lost this way. Moreover, unlike most of their competitors, cheetahs will not eat carrion (rotting meat). If they lose a kill, they must hunt again to get fresh meat.

Because the cheetah is built for speed and not for fighting, the animal has little chance of fending off lions or hyenas even when it is rested. Its bones are light and its body is thin and elongated, making the cat a poor match for a heavier adversary. And cheetahs are the only cats whose claws are always bared, like those of a dog, rather than being pulled back into protective sheaths. This feature gives cheetahs extra traction for running, but it also dulls the claws and makes them relatively useless for fighting. In addition, the cat's unusually broad nasal passages, which help the cheetah take in a large supply of oxygen while running, leave less room in the skull for the roots of long canines (tearing teeth), which are characteristic of lions and other wild cats. As a result, the cheetah's fangs are too short to take on fierce competitors.

Cheetahs face another threat from their larger relatives, Caro discovered. Beginning in 1987, Caro and his student Karen Laurenson attached radio collars to the necks of 20 free-ranging female cheetahs. For the next few years they tracked the cheetahs' movements, and whenever a cheetah had a litter, the researchers periodically examined the cubs. Caro and Laurenson concluded that 95 percent of cheetah cubs born in the Serengeti die before adulthood, most of them while still helpless in their dens, and that 75 percent of these cubs were killed by marauding lions. In protected areas across Africa, the researchers found, a high lion population correlates with a low cheetah population.