annakid.blogg.se - Do cheetahs have any predators

In that case, protect your throat and use your legs to kick the cheetah away.

Fight it off – Don’t try and fight a cheetah unless it attacks despite your intimidation techniques.

They can be intimidated by aggressively waving arms overhead, standing firmly, and making loud sounds like shouting or clapping.

Be frightening – Cheetahs are by no means the bravest of the big cat family.

Instead, go to a place you know is secure, like a safari vehicle or a gate leaving the cheetah’s enclosure. They can get up the trunk of a tree with their claws and speed much more quickly than you can reach a safe height.

Find safety – Trees are not safe from cheetahs.

Your best bet is to back away slowly without running or turning your back on the animal until you are safe. However, if it can’t, or if it feels it needs to defend itself, it may act aggressively by turning and facing you.

Back away slowly – Normally, a cheetah will simply leave the area when coming across a human.

Don’t try to touch or get near a cheetah. They will view an approach as a sign of aggression and may respond in kind. The cheetah doesn’t know that you just want to take a selfie, make friends, or pet them.

Never get too close – If you spot a cheetah somewhere, don’t go up to it.

Don’t go alone – If you’re in an area where cheetahs may be present, such as on a safari, do not go alone.

If you ever come into close contact with a cheetah, whether in the wild or in an enclosure, there are a few ways to behave so that both you and the cheetah have the best chance of leaving the situation unharmed.

A cheetah ignored the food and darted past while the gate was open choosing to charge and pounce on the volunteer instead. This includes trained professionals.Īnother example occurred in South Africa when an 18-year-old Belgian volunteer was watching a coworker feed the cheetahs inside their enclosure.

In addition to the above two examples, cheetahs in captivity have unexpectedly proven that they can attack humans. Cheetahs have injured humans beforeĪlthough no known record of a wild cheetah attacking a human exists, it is not true to say that cheetahs have never injured a human being before. While male cheetahs are the most aggressive in defending their turf during mating season, territory defense is still something that must be kept in mind when encountering any predatory animal. Two cheetahs named Charlie and Matt attacked and injured their conservationist owner, who was known to enter their area and feed them regularly.Īll big cats, even those in captivity, come to view their enclosures as their own territory. In 2008, one of the only recorded cheetah attacks on humans occurred. Predatorial instinct is attributed to the attack. The handlers suspected that this was because the zookeeper, although much different in shape and size from the cheetah’s typical prey, smelled like the giraffes and wildebeest he had been tending to. In 2021, a female cheetah named Izzy was on a routine walk around the zoo with her handlers when she suddenly decided to pounce on and attack a zookeeper they encountered. Crushing the bones of their prey and fighting off sturdy creatures like warthogs are a normal part of a cheetah’s life. The average human being is only used to running at top speeds of 14 miles per hour, so even if their lives were at stake, a fleeing human wouldn’t be able to outrun a cheetah that wanted to attack.Īdditionally, cheetahs have a bite force of 500 PSI, meaning they bite at least three times harder than we do.

A cheetah can run at over 70 miles per hour. So to say that a cheetah is among these ranks of dominant predators is pretty intimidating.Ĭheetahs are known for their speed. This is significant because most of the Earth’s cheetah population (which is unfortunately declining) shares a habitat with other predators like lions, jaguars, leopards, and hyenas. Cheetahs are predatorsĬheetahs are one of the dominant predators in their natural habitat. Let’s break these down further so we can understand why cheetahs can be dangerous to humans. This is due to the following three points: The truth is, yes, cheetahs can be dangerous to humans. However, your pet kitty isn’t known for being Earth’s fastest land mammal or an apex predator. That second fact is probably due to how similar a cheetah looks to modern housecats. Whether you’ve been to the zoo recently or simply seen a documentary on these gorgeous animals, you’ll probably be struck by the same two, seemingly contradictory facts: cheetahs are amazing predators, and cheetahs look very huggable. Final thoughts on how dangerous cheetahs are.