Cheetah

African animals

Felines

Predators

Cheetahs are the fastest land mammals in the world. In short distances they can reach speeds of over 100 km/h. Cheetahs differ from other felines in several ways. For example, they cannot retract their claws and their pupils are round and not slit-shaped like other felines.

Cheetahs have dark stripes under their eyes, called tear stripes. They help to block the sunlight so that the cheetah is not blinded by the sun. Most other felines hunt at dawn, dusk or at night, but the cheetah hunts mostly during the day. Cheetahs are also less aggressive than other felines and have been domesticated over the centuries to help with hunting, for companionship and as a status symbol. Today it is banned.

At Parken Zoo we have the African subspecies of cheetah. In the past it was heavily hunted for taking livestock, but today, through education and awareness-raising, local people have begun to recognise both the economic value of the cheetah attracting tourists
and the value of the species for biodiversity. The zoo participates in the European breeding programme, EEP, for the conservation of the species.

CITES A