The top cheetah speed is sometimes exaggerated a little I am afraid but it is the fastest land animal. You see 70+ mph but this is not supported by accurate measurements. A study (Timed running speed of a cheetah – Acinonyx jubatus) timed the cheetah from a running start over a 201-meter course at 29 meters per second. That is 65 miles per hour. The scientist states that: “This is the highest running speed that has been recorded reliably for any animal”. They accelerate as fast as powerful and exotic cars. The cheetah accelerates to 75 kilometres per hour in two seconds (46 mph).
I have seen reliable sources stating a top speed of 70 mph.
Years ago, I did research on this and I came to the conclusion that the top speed of the cheetah is around 65-70 mph. They overheat after 400 meters and keep up the speed for around 30 seconds.
I have a page on how the cheetah achieves this speed which you can see by clicking on this link if you wish.
It is said that the cheetah and the racing greyhound are of a similar size and morphology i.e. appearance and anatomy. But the cheetah can achieve much higher top speeds. A study found that cheetahs use a lower stride frequency/longer stride length than the greyhound at all speeds.
Also, at high speed the hind limbs of the cheetah support the majority of the animal’s body weight with the cheetah supporting 70% of his body weight whereas the greyhound’s hindlimbs supported just 62% of its body weight.
This meant that the cheetah is less likely to slip and therefore can exert a greater propulsive effort to thrust forward (“High speed galloping in the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and the racing greyhound (Canis familiaris): spatio-temporal and kinetic characteristics”).
Below is a Twitter feed version of this video:
When a cheetah is at its fastest,each stride can be a staggering 7meter.
Incredible pic.twitter.com/B03EkyBWLD— Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) June 29, 2022
Note: This is an embedded tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
Below are some more pages on the glorious cheetah.
