The cheetah is the fastest land animal. In 2013, researchers in Botswana used a GPS tracking collar to record a top speed of 25.9 meters per second (58 miles per hour, or 93 kilometers per hour) for a wild cheetah (as of November 2026).
The Botswana study recorded some of the highest values for forward and sideways acceleration, deceleration and power for any land mammal. A cheetah can speed up from zero to 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour) in just 2.5 seconds, according to the National Zoo. Most hunts in the study involved only moderate speeds.
In Namibia, researchers fitted 164 male and female cheetahs with GPS collars. Adult males follow one of two plans. They roam over areas of up to 1,600 square kilometers, or they defend a small territory of about 380 square kilometers. Females in the study used home ranges of about 650 square kilometers.
The Serengeti Cheetah Project, a 30-year study, showed that cheetahs live at much lower densities than other large carnivores and need large, connected areas of habitat.
Camera traps identify cheetahs by their unique spots, but the huge number of pictures is very time-consuming to check. In a Namibia camera-trap study, a computer pattern tool lowered the count from 43 cheetahs to 40 after re-checking, which suggests human eyes may overcount.
Researchers can work out which cheetah left a dropping, what it ate and its health from DNA, hair and hormones in its scat.
Cheetah genomes are on average 95 percent homozygous, compared with 24 percent for the outbred domestic cat, which shows very little genetic variation in the species. Fourteen skin grafts between unrelated cheetahs were accepted in a 1985 study, a sign of extreme genetic uniformity.
A survey of 313 cheetahs across Namibia found little difference in genes among regions, so the Namibian cheetahs behave as one large population.
A 2026 genetic study found the extinct American cheetah was more closely related to the puma than to the cheetah. Its body looked like a cheetah's. Ancient DNA shows the northern American cheetah in the Yukon likely specialized in salmon and other fish, while southern ones were generalist predators.
In 2016, a study estimated about 7,100 cheetahs worldwide, living in only 9 percent of their historical range (as of November 2026). The 2016 study found 77 percent of the cheetah's current range lies outside protected areas.
The Asiatic cheetah was once found from Israel to India and as far north as the Caspian Sea. As of November 2026, a study of 2012 to 2024 camera-trap records identified 24 adult Asiatic cheetahs, with the remaining population in Iran's north likely under 30 animals.
Cheetahs live on grasslands and open plains. Most cheetahs live in Africa. As of November 2026, cheetahs are found in 23 African countries and two Asian countries, according to Panthera.
Words to know
- collar: neck band
- scat: animal droppings
- genomes: all their genes
- homozygous: matching gene pairs
- generalist: eats many foods
