The spotted fur of the cheetah helps it to blend into its surroundings so that it can stalk and hunt its prey more effectively. The cheetah’s camouflaged hide helps to protect as well by enabling the cubs to hide from lion and hyena predators. Along with containing spots, the fur also develops in a mantle along the head, neck and back of cub. This longer fur gives the cub the appearance of grass blades so that it can more easily stay hidden. Because cheetah cubs are so vulnerable to predation, females usually have large litters to counteract the high infant mortality rate of 90 percent.
People often confuse between Jaguar, Leopard and Cheetah as they are of approximately same height with spots on their bodies, but if we investigate properly we will find there are many key differences among them including their habitat, diet, hunting style, morphology, and vocalization.
Cheetahs are shaped so differently from other wild cats that they are their own genus. They have a rangy greyhound-like thinner body frame with deep chest and narrow waist. They have solid, round, polka-type black spots measuring 2 to 3 cm (0.79 to 1.2 in) across. These spots are not “rosettes” like the jaguars and leopards have. There are no spots on their white underside, but the tail, which usually ends in a bushy white tuft, does have spots that merge to form four to six dark rings at the end. Cheetahs have a small head in proportion to their bodies to streamline their running. Eyes are set high on the skull. They have black “tear lines” running from the corner of their both eyes down the sides of the nose to their mouth.
Leopards normally have smaller and rounder rosettes than those of the jaguars. In addition to this leopards are larger and much more muscular as compared to cheetahs, but slightly smaller and more lightly built if compared with the jaguars. Smaller than other members of Panthera genus leopards are usually solitary, but highly agile and depend on stealth to hunt. Despite being smaller in size this predator is quite capable of taking larger prey given its massive skull that well utilizes powerful jaw muscles.
Jaguars are found in the rain forests of South and Central America, open and seasonally flooded wetlands and dry grassland habitat. They usually prefer dense rainforests. This animal has the strongest bite of all felids. It is capable of biting down with 2,000 pounds-force (8,900 N), which is twice the strength of a lion and the second powerful of all mammals after the spotted hyena; It allows the jaguar to pierce turtle shells. The strength of the cat is such that an individual can drag a 360 kg (800 lb) bull 8 m (25 ft) in its jaws and crush the strongest bones.
Credit: reference.com
