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Cheetahs are carnivores, eating mostly mammals under 40 kg (90 lb), including gazelles, impala, wildebeest calves, guinea fowl and hares. While the other big cats mainly hunt by night, the cheetah is a diurnal hunter. It hunts usually either early in the morning or later in the night when it is not so hot, but there is still enough light - cheetahs hunt by vision rather than by scent. Prey is stalked to within ten to thirty meters (30-100 ft), then chased. The chase is usually over in less than a minute and if the cheetah fails to make a quick catch, it will often give up rather than waste energy. Roughly half of the chases are successful. The cheetah kills its prey by suffocating it, for it is not strong enough to break the necks of the gazelles it mainly hunts. Then the cheetah proceeds to devour its catch as quickly as possible, for it is unable to defend itself against lions and hyenas. |
