Living With Two Cheetah, Five Lions And Two Tigers, Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen

Running at very high speeds puts a great deal of strain on the cheetah's body. When sprinting, the cheetah's body temperature quickly elevates. If it is a hard chase, it sometimes needs to rest for half an hour or more.
The cheetah kills its prey by tripping it during the chase, then biting it on the underside of the throat to suffocate it; the cheetah is not strong enough to break the necks of most prey. The bite may also puncture a vital artery in the neck. Then the cheetah proceeds to devour its catch as quickly as possible before the kill is taken by stronger predators.
Data from 367 runs by three female and two male adults, with an average run distance of 173 m, showed that hunting cheetahs can run 58 miles (93 km) per hour. A recent study that followed 5 African cheetahs indicated that cheetahs relied most heavily on acceleration. Most chases involved extreme maneuverability more than speed. The study indicated that cheetahs seemed to rarely run close to 60 mph or more; on most hunts they reached 30 to 35 mph, but they accelerated and changed direction much more rapidly than any other land animal.
The diet of a cheetah is dependent upon the area in which it lives. For example, on the East African plains, its preferred prey is the Thomson's gazelle. This small antelope is smaller and slower than the cheetah, which makes it an appropriate prey. Cheetahs look for individuals which have strayed some distance from their group, and do not necessarily seek out old or weak ones.