For millions of years
the fastest animal on the planet
The cheetah has had the antelope in its sights
Pollution has given the antelope an arsenal of countermeasures. So it has a chance to escape
In order to survive this cheetah has had to develop more weapons than just her speed
It's the ultimate battle of biomechanics
As science determines who wins one of nature's deadliest faceoffs
Seen through the eyes of a predator
The cheetah and the antelopes are well-matched in the predator-prey struggle
Because as fast as the cheetah is with her blazing top speed of 120 kilometres per hour
Some members of the Antelope family which includes gazelles and impalas are nearly as fast
Hitting over 95 kilometers per hour
But speed alone didn't win this mother cheetah a much-needed meal
It's her incredible burst of acceleration
That makes her one of the most successful predators in Africa
Catching half the animals she hunts
She exploded with a lightning quick jolt from 0 to 95 km/h in less than three seconds
That's an acceleration faster than a jet plane
The secret to her explosive stride is her perfectly engineered spine
About 60% of her muscle mass is packed onto her backbone
Her spine expands and contracts with so much force
It actually adds 3/4 of a meter to her stride
Giving her the power to lunge nearly eight meters in a single bound
The ground races past her at 31 meters per second
When she stays locked on target
Once her unrivaled burst of acceleration kicks in the antelopes lead
Is gone
But this cheetahs job isn't done yet
She's so streamlined for speed she can't deliver a deadly bite through the Antelope spine like a lion does
Her aerodynamic skull doesn't reboot for strong teeth or jaw muscles
The only way that the cheetah can make a kill is by going to the throat making a strangulation hole
She squeezes the antelopes throat
She holds this throat lock for nearly ten minutes
And while she's decreasing the antelopes oxygen supply she's actually increasing hers
sucking in deep breaths to her large nasal cavity
Trying to recover from the massive strain of a 120 km/h sprint
But she can't afford to rest any longer
The animal could weigh as much as she does, but she needs to get it out of there
She can't eat it in the open
She has to get that food to a safe place and eat it as quick as possible
Before it attracts the attention of some of the other predators
With just her teeth she drags the 30 kilogram carcass under the cover of a tree
She has to slow down for just a little bit and catch her breath again
She has to rest anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour to fully get down to a normal heart rate
Running faster than any land animal on earth takes a massive toll on her body
She just burned through 300 calories in one chase
That's like a human running without stopping for over 30 minutes
She did it in 30 seconds
Most cheetahs would spend the next half hour resting and then eating
But this mother cheetah doesn't have that luxury
She has to get this meal
To her four cubs
But the African savannah is full of other hungry predators
Just as she approaches her Cubs a
Lion is on to her
And if she can't keep him away
She'll lose today's meal
Any injury to her would mean death for her starving cubs
So she has no choice but to hand over the kill
All of that effort that loss of precious energy gone in the blink of an eye
50% of the kills that she makes are stolen by larger predators that cheetah is not equipped to fight
Cheetah just doesn't stand a chance
Losing that antelope was a big blow for the cheetah she burns at least
2,500 calories a day and this substantial meal almost 5,000 calories
would have given her enough energy to keep her going for two more days and
Now her energy level is dropping
Her survival hinges upon consuming more calories than she burns
Once she hits zero. She's in the danger zone and starts burning her own muscle for fuel
The cheetahs back with her Cubs but since female cheetahs are always single mothers
She'll have to once again leave her cubs alone to embark on another hunt
In the distance she
Spots what humans could never see with the naked eye
It'd be very similar to us grabbing a pair of high-powered binoculars
And as you're scanning the landscape something that will catch your eye is the same thing. That'll catch your eyes and that's movement
She closes in on potential prey, but she can't make her move too quickly
Because when two of the fastest animals in Africa engage in a battle the difference between life and death isn't just speed
It's also vision
This cheetah like most predators has evolved with eyes on the front of her skull
It gives her binocular vision and the depth perception to calculate exactly how far away her prey is
as
Important as eyesight is for the cheetah. It's even more important for the antelope
Antelopes, like most prey have eyes on the sides of their skull
So while a cheetah may have a field of vision of over 200 degrees
The eyes on the sides of the antelopes head give him a 270 degree field of view
With a tiny shift of his neck he monitors the full 360 degrees of his environment
His eyes are so sensitive to movement he can detect a slightest motion of a predator
Now in the antelopes line of sight the cheetah freezes
She knows as she remains motionless she is virtually invisible
The tawny color of the cheetah does a great job of blending her into her environment those spots that are covering her body
Look very much like shadows and help to break up her pattern. So it's very difficult for some of the other animals to see
What she's doing is kind of digging her feet in and she's getting ready for that push off
It's like a track runner getting into the blocks before the gun blows
In this eons old battle of life and death the cheetah has always had the advantage of speed but it comes with a catch
She has almost no endurance and on this hunt
Without a strong head start
She got caught up in a long chase
Redlining her body's powerful engine. She takes 150 breaths a minute
Three times as many as the fastest human sprinter the massive heart pumps over 16 liters of blood per minute
Circulating her entire body's blood supply in less than 20 seconds
At this pace she has less than half a minute before her body gives in to the stress
Her heart last 39 degree blood into her brain another one and a half degrees higher and it overheats
She only has seconds to make this kill well the chase could kill her
Once the body starts to go into overdrive and overheat the brain is the most vulnerable of all of our body parts once the brain
overheats
There's almost no bringing it back
But the Antelope is in less danger of overheating because he has a built-in cooling system
And for blood reaches his brain
It passes through a cluster of blood vessels
That are cooled by rapid bursts of air shooting to his enlarged nasal cavity
Just like a car's radiator it prevents vital fluids from overheating
And even as his body temperature reaches a scorching 42 degrees his brain is protected
He can stay cooler under pressure
When the Cheetahs temperature hit 40 degrees her body told her she had mere seconds to decide whether to let the Antelope get away
Or die trying to catch it
For a cheetah if they start their hunt too early
They can burn themselves out very quickly and not be able to catch their prey. She
Gave it everything she had but the hunt ended in disaster
an
Antelope can run close to 50 miles an hour. You're thinking, okay
Well cheetah can run faster than that, but the antelope can maintain that speed for a very very long time
They're more like endurance runners that can run very very fast. Whereas the Cheetahs are just sprinters
Not only did she fail to come away with a meal her energy reserves took a huge hit
And on her next couple hunts it gets worse
First she Springs after a lone male and closes in a hurry
But what seems like an easy target suddenly becomes a tough kill
Instead of running away the Antelope bounces up and down
It's a countermeasure called starting a last-ditch effort to intimidate the cheetah by projecting strength and stamina
And it works
Her initial sprint has already taken a lot out of her and she can't afford to burn any more energy on a kill
She's not certain she can make
It gets even more challenging on her next hunt as she creeps to within 45 meters of a herd of antelope
But they sprint away bursting into gravity-defying leaps
Shooting three meters into the air in and out of the Cheetahs line of sight is too disorienting
And she gives up the chase
But not without depleting her energy reserves even further
It's been a rough couple of days for
She and her Cubs have gone without any food and things are starting to look desperate
Physically the cheetah can probably last about as long as you or I could last without food
Probably five or six days without eating before she absolutely collapses of starvation
She's constantly looking for
predators that could come after her cubs
She's looking for prey that she could be hunting which means that she doesn't have a lot of down time
She's always on that adrenaline. That's within them constantly is keeping them on guard
It's like being at war where you're never able to relax
She has to find food and find it fast
She approaches her next hunt like a covert operation
Targeting a herd with several juveniles who are slower and less alert
The closer that she can get to him before she actually starts running the higher the likelihood that she's going to catch it down
And it takes far less energy to crouch and sneak up on the animal than it does the full-out run
As she closes to within a few hundred meters she initiates her stealth mode
Suddenly the body known for moving faster than any on four legs moves extremely slowly
She stalks her prey for nearly an hour when a youngster finally strays from the group
He's incredibly vulnerable but still over 90 meters beyond her striking range
If she attacks now she risks burning out and losing her prey in a long chase, but if she doesn't make a move soon
This perfect target could fall back in with his herd
And her best shot at a meal would disappear
It's a risk she has to take
Against the odds this cheetah came away with a kill
And she did it with an explosive burst
From zero to ninety five kilometers in just three seconds
At that speed she should have blurred and distorted vision
Which would make it nearly impossible for her to accurately lock in her target
But in an amazing feat of biomechanical engineering
She has an elastic ligament connecting her head directly to her spine
It gives her optical image stabilization
Which means that even at breakneck speed her neck and head are perfectly steady moving directly forward straight as an arrow
Providing the pinpoint accuracy. She needs to track her prey and make a quick clean kill
After she's made the kill she'll chew open the
Hindquarters, which has the largest amount of meat the Cubs don't have strong enough teeth to do that
Then the Cubs will come in and start eating it first
By the time her Cubs have eaten there are just a few bites left for her
She's picked up a small amount of energy, but her tank is still close to empty
Despite being exhausted she'll have to start all over again
If she doesn't hunt that means she could starve and if she starves in the cub star
It's a very very hard life for a female cheetah
Her Cubs are completely dependent on her
And she now knows that while hunting small antelope might keep her cubs alive. They won't keep her alive for long
She locks in on a large antelope
Alone and oblivious
For over an hour, she stalks him to within 45 meters close enough to strike
He's huge weighing 60 kilograms
He'd be more than enough food for her family
But does she have enough energy left in her tank to catch him and bring him down?
She's able to knock her giant adversary right off its feet
Because at the exact moment the antelopes leg is on its back swing
she extends her paw and
lashes out with her greatest weapon in a high-speed pursuit
Her dewclaw
Because it doesn't touch the ground when she runs
This is her only claw that stays razor-sharp
It latches on to the antelopes hip
He runs at nearly 80 km/h trying to pull free from the Cheetahs grip
But her dewclaw is hooked so deeply into the antelopes thick high
That she can't be shaken
With just this tiny claw two and a half centimetres long. She sends a 60 kilogram antelope tumbling to the ground
In one lethal swipe
But she's able to get the Antelope down
But with his enormous size she can't keep him down
What she thought was a kill may actually kill her
This cheetahs dewclaw helped her take this giant antelope down
But her other claws actually prevented her from keeping him down
They're too dull to tear the antelopes skin
And her teeth and jaw don't have the strength to land a strong bite
Lacking weapons in this biomechanical arms race she tries one last desperate move
Going for a kill bite
These antelope have weapons that point straight up so in the act of tumbling around the cheetahs got to negotiate
Where she can get in safely and get a nice bite on the neck if she doesn't negotiate that right
She's not in good shape
She's lucky to have escaped without being gored
Burning far more calories than she's consuming is pushing her body to the break
And risking the very survival of her family
After catching her breath she heads back to the tree under which she last left her cubs
But they're gone
Their scent is out of a range our only hope is to call out to them
But if she alerts any predators to her cubs presence
We put them in great danger
From the time that Cubs are very very little they know that they need to fear lions and they need to fear hyenas
They killed cheetah cubs not because they like the tastes of the cheetah
In fact a lot of times whenever they do kill a cub they don't even eat it
But what they are doing is eliminating the competition that's in the area
With so many ruthless competitors around she needs to track down her cubs without exposing them
When she gets separated from her cubs, she's going to start to chirp like a bird
Large predators are very used to the roaring sounds and the very typical cat sounds
She emits this sound that sounds like a bird
And all of a sudden pain is not paying attention anymore because oh it's just a bird
She's done what she had to do
But how did she manage to hold off a hyena that's bigger stronger than a flat-out better fighter
She was helped by the long black tear lines under her eyes
Cheetahs are the only cat species
Who have tear lines that go all the way from the corners of their eyes down to the corner of their mouths those tear lines?
exacerbate her facial expressions
Native Americans used to wear war paint to make themselves seem much more physically intimidating
So if she snarls and hisses and spits and those tear lines make her look more aggressive
Maybe she can get away
Her cubs are safe for now, but predators like hyenas lions and leopards pose a serious threat every time she leaves them alone
About 10% of the Cubs will make it to they're a year old
that first year their life is the most difficult time because literally everything is looking out for them and we'll take advantage of a
Cheetah cub being left alone
So this mother is forced to make a difficult choice
Does she go off on a hunt to provide for her cubs?
Or does she stay close to protect them from perpetual danger?
Right now she decides her cubs need food more than they need her protection
Over the past week this mother cheetah has struggled with the increased hunting demands of having four growing Cubs
Burning far more energy than she's consuming
And now her caloric reserves have dropped below zero she's burning through fat and even muscle just to keep her going
If she doesn't succeed in this next hunt it could be her last
She shifts her tactics
Rather than hunt a dawn or dusk when there's greater competition. She decides to go on the prowl at midday when?
predator traffic dies down
This is also when the Sun is at its brightest
Which is a big problem for most of Africa's predators
But the cheetah is equipped to handle the glare
The very same tear lines that helped her and her cubs escape the hyena
May enhance her vision in the harshest African sunlight
When human athletes are out in the middle of the day playing football or baseball
They were black grease under their eyes to help dampen the glare of the sunlight
She just do the same thing so that when she's hunting that sunlight doesn't affect her so much
Fully equipped to handle the Blazing Sun she creeps up on a herd of antelope but doesn't move in from behind
She goes the long way taking a position to its side
Why would she risk moving into the antelopes line-of-sight
To avoid the wind
The antelopes sense of smell is amazing over time a cheetah will learn that it could give away its presence just by its scent
So it start learning to approach the animal download
Her focus shifts to two antelopes straying from the herd
She creeps as close as she can hoping to avoid burning what little energy she has left in a long-distance chase
The antelopes start to separate and
in an instant
She has to make a choice
This one is over 35 metres away
The other is much closer
But her brain instantly registers for obstacles surrounding it
Each represents a chance for her prey to escape each of these obstacles can prevent her from reaching top speed
Each of these obstacles can cost her two to three strides
And without her blazing top speed
her greatest advantage slips away
This one might be farther away and bigger but she has a cleaner path a straighter trajectory of attack
She's analyzed dozens of variables and made her choice
She knows she has just enough energy for one final sprint a
Sprint which won't exceed 30 seconds
If she has chosen the wrong antelope
She may reach the limit of her endurance and she and her Cubs
will starve
Just ten seconds into the chase
The Cheetahs closed the gap on the antelope to 15 metres
At this pace her speed advantage would put her on the antelopes back
In just two point two seconds
But suddenly the Antelope begins darting side-to-side
Each sharp turn by the analog forces the cheetah to alter her path
Adding two seconds to the chase
If he makes ten of these quick turns
They'll push the cheetah to the limit for endurance
The antelope may be slower but evolution gave him a potential lifesaver
Agility
At risk of starvation this mother cheetah finally made the big kill she needed to keep herself alive
there's more than enough food here to recharge her energy and
provide for her cubs
So, how was she able to match the quickness and agility of the antelope
To keep her body under such precise control at such intense speed she relied on two key body parts
first her claws
Unlike most other cats they never fully retract
They're like a sprinters track spikes
giving her constant traction and
the sharpest turning radius of all of Africa's big cats
so even at this breakneck speed she turns on a dime and
Is vital to her agility as her claws
his her 76 centimeter long tail
But cheetahs tell is very very long and very muscular and as she is
Running at top speed. She'll use that the way a boat would use a rudder
so as she's turning she'll throw the tail out to one side to help her corner one way to
Throw it out to the other side to help her corner in the other direction
Her claws and tail gave her the agility and balance to go stride for stride with the antelope
And with a bigger stride than the antelope she gained enough ground to finally take it down
It was the perfect kill
Executed with a perfect combination of predatory skills
a silent stalk of unsuspecting prey a burst of acceleration
a split-second decision a surge of quickness
And a perfectly timed swipe of her Duke law all led to the most important kill of her life
Exhausted she tries to recover from the fight but out here on the open plain
She's a prime target for a mugging
Will she continue to rest and risk losing her kill to a hungry adversary
Where can she summon up the strength to drag the 45 kilogram carcass back to her cubs
Before a predator tries to snatch it from her
She's got to manage to slow her heart rate slower respiration rate
And then she can actually think about being able to bring an antelope back to feed her cubs
But despite having this fresh kill in her teeth
She's only fought half the battle
She still has to drag the heavy carcass to her cubs
And do it without drawing any attention
She returns to her cubs undetected still exhausted from the hunt
She barely has the energy to dig in for the caloric boost. She so desperately needs
But she still can't let down her guard other opportunists are swooping in
Over 40 vultures descend on the cheetah
And make it clear. They will challenge her for the kill
If a cheetah gets tangled up with a big bird like a vulture and just gets a wound a nicked for limb then that cheetah
Is as good as dead because that animal can then no longer run 70 miles an hour
She tries to bluff but still weak from the chase. She's all bark and no bite
And the vultures can sense it
This is Nature's Way of levelling the predatory playing field
The cheetah is the fastest animal on four legs one of the best hunters in Africa
But it comes with a great genetic sacrifice
The cheetahs are almost over specialised
because every
Adaptation that these cats have that gives them so much greater speed comes at a cost. There's no middle ground
Her small slender head boost aerodynamics for maximum speed
But translated into week jaws and small teeth
Her semi-retractable claws provide incredible traction and agility
But they're anything but deadly weapons
And her lightweight skeleton keeps the cheetah quick and agile
But small bones mean less mass and she's often outweighed by other predators
Even prey
This cheetah and her cubs weren't able to finish their meal, but they've eaten enough to make it to another day
it's all part of their constant struggle just
to survive
the larger carnivores like lions and hyenas have been able to grow their
Populations which about competed the Cheetahs in the last hundred years. We've lost about 90 percent of the Cheetahs. They're left in the world
For this cheetahs part all she can do is continue to provide for her cubs
Protect them from danger
And teach them her predatory strategies in hopes that they will one day survive on their own
Fortunately for her
They already possess their deadliest hunting weapon
A genetic gift given to them at birth
pure unadulterated
Speed
You
Just as she approaches her Cubs a
Lion is on to her
And if she can't keep him away
She'll lose today's meal
Any injury to her would mean death for her starving cubs
So she has no choice but to hand over the kill
All of that effort that loss of precious energy gone in the blink of an eye
50% of the kills that she makes are stolen by larger predators that cheetah is not equipped to fight
Cheeta just doesn't stand a chance
Losing that antelope was a big blow for the cheetah she burns at least
2,500 calories a day and this substantial meal almost 5,000 calories
would have given her enough energy to keep her going for two more days and
Now her energy level is dropping
Her survival hinges upon consuming more calories than she burns
Once she hits zero. She's in the danger zone and starts burning her own muscles for fuel
The cheetahs back with her Cubs but since female cheetahs are always single mothers
She'll have to once again leave her cubs alone to embark on another hunt
In the distance she
Spots what humans could never see with the naked eye
It'd be very similar to us grabbing a pair of high-powered binoculars
And as you're scanning the landscape something that will catch your eye is the same thing. That'll catch your eyes and that's movement
She closes in on potential prey, but she can't make her move too quickly
Because when two of the fastest animals in Africa engage in a battle the difference between life and death isn't just speed
It's also vision
This cheetah like most predators has evolved with eyes on the front of her skull
It gives her binocular vision and the depth perception to calculate exactly how far away her prey is
As important as eyesight is for the cheetah it's even more important for the antelope
Antelopes, like most prey have eyes on the sides of their skull
So while a cheetah may have a field of vision of over 200 degrees
The eyes on the sides of the antelopes head give him a 270 degree field of view
With a tiny shift of his neck he monitors the full 360 degrees of his environment
His eyes are so sensitive to movement. He can detect the slightest motion of a predator
Now in the antelopes line of sight the cheetah freezes
She knows if she remains motionless she is virtually invisible
The tawny color of the cheetah does a great job of blending her into her environment those spots that are covering her body
Looked very much like shadows and helped to break up her pattern. So it's very difficult for some of the other animals to see
But she's doing is kind of digging her feet in and she's getting ready for that push off
It's like a track runner getting into the blocks before the gun blows
In this eons old battle of life and death the cheetah has always had the advantage of speed but it comes with a catch
She has
You
For millions of years
the fastest animal on the planet
The cheetah has had the antelope in its sights
The antelope an arsenal of countermeasures so it has a chance to escape
In order to survive this cheetah has had to develop more weapons than just her speed
It's the ultimate battle of biomechanics
As science determines who wins one of nature's deadliest faceoffs
Seen through the eyes of a predator
The cheetah and the antelopes are well-matched in the predator-prey struggle
Because as fast as the cheetah is with her blazing top speed of 120 kilometers per hour
Some members of the Antelope family which includes gazelles and impalas are nearly as fast
Hitting over 95 kilometers per hour
But speed alone didn't win this mother cheetah a much-needed meal
It's her incredible burst of acceleration
That makes her one of the most successful predators in Africa
Catching half the animals she hunts
She exploded with a lightning quick jolt from 0 to 95 km/h in less than 3 seconds
That's an acceleration faster than a jet plane
The secret to her explosive stride is her perfectly engineered spine
About 60% of her muscle mass is packed onto her backbone
Her spine expands and contracts with so much force
It actually adds 3/4 of a meter to her stride
Giving her the power to lunge nearly eight meters in a single bound
The ground races past her at 31 meters per second
But she stays locked on target
Once our unrivaled burst of acceleration kicks in the antelopes lead
Is gone
But this cheetahs job isn't done yet
She's so streamlined for speed she can't deliver a deadly bite to the Antelope spine like a lion does
Her aerodynamic skull doesn't leave room for strong teeth or jaw muscles
The only way that the cheetah can make a kill is by going to the throat making a strangulation hole
She squeezes the antelopes throat
She holds this throat lock for nearly ten minutes
And while she's decreasing the antelopes oxygen supply she's actually increasing hers
sucking in deep breaths to her large nasal cavity
Trying to recover from the massive strain of a 120 km/h sprint
But she can't afford to rest any longer
The animal could weigh as much as she does, but she needs to get it out of there
She can't eat it in the open. She has to get that food to a safe place and eat it as quick as possible
Before it attracts the attention of some of the other predators
With just her teeth she drags the 30 kilogram carcass under the cover of a tree
She has to slow down for just a little bit and catch her breath again
She has to rest anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour to fully
Get down to a normal heart rate
Running faster than any land animal on earth. It takes a massive toll on her body
She just burned through 300 calories in one chase that's like a human running without stopping for over 30 minutes
She did it in 30 seconds. Most cheetahs would spend the next half hour resting and then eating
But this mother cheetah doesn't have that luxury
She has to get this meal
To her four cubs
But the African savannah is full of other hungry predators
Most no endurance and on this hunt
Without a strong head start
She got caught up in a long chase
Redlining her body's powerful engine. She takes 150 breaths a minute
Three times as many as the fastest human sprinter the massive heart pumps over 16 liters of blood per minute
Circulating her entire body's blood supply in less than 20 seconds
At this pace she has less than half a minute before her body gives in to the stress
Her heart last 39 degree blood into her brain another one and a half degrees higher and it overheats
She only has seconds to make this kill where the chase could kill her
Once the body starts to go into overdrive and overheat the brain is the most vulnerable of all of our body parts once the brain
overheats
There's almost no bringing it back
But the Antelope is in less danger of overheating because he has a built-in cooling system
And for blood reaches his brain
It passes through a cluster of blood vessels
That are cooled by rapid bursts of air shooting through his enlarged nasal cavity
Just like a car's radiator it prevents vital fluids from overheating
And even as his body temperature reaches a scorching 42 degrees his brain is protected
He can stay cooler under pressure
When the Cheetahs temperature hit 40 degrees her body told her she had mere seconds to decide whether to let the Antelope get away
Or die trying to catch it
For a cheetah if they start their hunt too early
They can burn themselves out very quickly and not be able to catch their prey. She
Gave it everything she had but the hunt ended in disaster
an
Antelope can run close to 50 miles an hour. You're thinking, okay
Well cheetah can run faster than that, but the antelope can maintain that speed for a very very long time
They're more like endurance runners that can run very very fast. Whereas the Cheetahs are just sprinters
Not only did she fail to come away with a meal her energy reserves took a huge hit
and
On her next couple hunts it gets worse
First she Springs after a lone male and closes in a hurry
But what seems like an easy target suddenly becomes a tough kill
Instead of running away the Antelope bounces up and down
It's a countermeasure called starting a last-ditch effort to intimidate the cheetah by projecting strength and stamina
And it works
Her initial sprint has already taken a lot out of her and she can't afford to burn any more energy on a kill
She's not certain she can make
It gets even more challenging on her next hunt as she creeps to within 45 metres of a herd of antelope
But they sprint away bursting into gravity-defying leaps
Shooting three meters into the air in and out of the Cheetahs line of sight is too disorienting
And she gives up the chase
But not without depleting her energy reserves even further
It's been a rough couple of days for
She and her Cubs have gone without any food and things are starting to look desperate
Physically the cheetah can probably last about as long as you or I could last without food
Probably five or six days without eating before she absolutely collapses of starvation
She's constantly looking for
Predators that could come after her cubs. She's looking for prey that she could be hunting
Which means that she doesn't have a lot of down time. She's always on that adrenaline
That's within them constantly is keeping them on guard. It's like being at war where you're never able to relax
She has to find food and find it fast
She approaches her next hunt like a covert operation
Targeting a herd with several juveniles who are slower and less alert
The closer that she can get to him before she actually starts running the higher the likelihood that she's going to catch it down
And it takes far less energy to crouch and sneak up on the animal than it does the full-out run
As she closes to within a few hundred meters she initiates her stealth mode
Suddenly the body known for moving faster than any on four legs moves extremely slowly
She stalks her prey for nearly
What she thought was a kill may actually kill her
This cheetahs dewclaw helped her take this giant antelope down
But her other claws actually prevented her from keeping him down
They're too dull to tear the antelopes skin
And her teeth and jaw don't have the strength to land a strong bite
Lacking weapons in this biomechanical arms race she tries one last desperate move
Going for a kill bite
These antelope have weapons that point straight up so in the act of tumbling around the cheetahs got to negotiate
Where she can get in safely and get a nice bite on the neck if she doesn't negotiate that right
She's not good shape
She's lucky to have escaped without being gored
Burning far more calories than she's consuming. He's pushing her body to the break
And risking the very survival of her family
After catching her breath she heads back to the tree under which she last left her cubs
But they're gone
Their scent is out of a range our only hope is to call out to them
But if she alerts any predators to her cubs presence
We put that in great danger
From the time that Cubs are very very little they know that they need to fear lions and they need to fear hyenas
They've killed cheetah cubs not because they like the tastes of the cheetah
In fact a lot of times whenever they do kill a cub they don't even eat it
But what they are doing is eliminating the competition that's in the area
With so many ruthless competitors around she needs to track down her cubs without exposing them
When she gets separated from her cubs, she's going to start to chirp like a bird
Large predators are very used to the roaring sounds and the very typical cat sounds
She omits the sound that sounds like a bird
And all of a sudden pain is not paying attention anymore because oh it's just a bird
She's done what she had to do
But how did she manage to hold off a hyena that's bigger stronger than a flat-out better fighter
She was helped by the long black tear lines under her eyes
Cheetahs are the only cat species
Who have tear lines that go all the way from the corners of their eyes down to the corner of their mouths those tear lines?
exacerbate her facial expressions
Native Americans used to wear war paint to make themselves seem much more physically intimidating
So if she snarls and hisses and spits and those tear lines make her look more aggressive
Maybe she can get away
Her cubs are safe for now, but predators like hyenas lions and leopards pose a serious threat every time she leaves them alone
About 10% of the Cubs will make it to they're a year old
that first year their life is the most difficult time because literally everything is looking out for them and we'll take advantage of a
Cheetah cub being left alone
So this mother is forced to make a difficult choice
Does she go off on a hunt to provide for her cubs?
Or does she stay close to protect them from perpetual danger?
Right now she decides her Cubs need food more than our when a youngster finally strays from the group
He's incredibly vulnerable but still over 90 meters beyond her striking range
If she attacks now she risks burning out and losing her prey in a long chase, but if she doesn't make a move soon
This perfect target could fall back in with his herd
And her best shot at a meal would disappear
It's a risk she has to take
Against the odds this cheetah came away with a kill
And she did it with an explosive burst
From zero to ninety five kilometers in just three seconds
At that speed she should have blurred and distorted vision
Which would make it nearly impossible for her to accurately lock in her target
But in an amazing feat of biomechanical engineering
She has an elastic ligament connecting her head directly to her spine
It gives her optical image stabilization
Which means that even at breakneck speed her neck and head are perfectly steady moving directly forward straight as an arrow
Providing the pinpoint accuracy. She needs to track her prey and make a quick clean kill
After she's made the kill she'll chew open the
Hindquarters, which has the largest amount of meat the Cubs don't have strong enough teeth to do that
Then the Cubs will come in and start eating it first
By the time her Cubs have eaten there are just a few bites left for her
She's picked up a small amount of energy, but her tank is still close to empty
Despite being exhausted she'll have to start all over again
If she doesn't hunt that means she could starve and if she starves in the cub star
It's a very very hard life for a female cheetah
Her Cubs are completely dependent on her
And she now knows that while hunting small antelope might keep her cubs alive. They won't keep her alive for long
She locks in on a large antelope
Alone and oblivious
For over an hour, she stalks him to within 45 meters close enough to strike
He's huge weighing 60 kilograms
He'd be more than enough food for her family
But does she have enough energy left in her tank to catch him and bring him down?
She's able to knock her giant adversary right off its feet
Because at the exact moment the antelopes leg is on its back swing
she extends her paw and
lashes out with her greatest weapon in a high-speed pursuit
Her dewclaw
Because it doesn't touch the ground when she runs
This is her only claw that stays razor-sharp
It latches on to the antelopes hip
He runs at nearly 80 km/h trying to pull free from the Cheetahs grip
But her dewclaw is hooked so deeply into the antelopes thick high
That she can't be shaken
With just this tiny claw two and a half centimetres long. She sends a 60 kilogram antelope tumbling to the ground
In one lethal swipe
She's able to get the Antelope down
But with his enormous size she can't keep him down
