The cheetah, the fastest runner

Many of you must have heard about the cheetah because of its lightning speed. The cheetah is a spotted, slender, sleek, graceful, swift predator...an animal that hunts for its food, on the run. This particular cat is a diurnal hunter, which means that it hunts primarily during the day. Why? Because it uses its incredible running ability to catch a daily meal, and it needs to be able to see what it is running after. It's all about adaptations.

This means there are special characteristics about each animal that help it live. One of the cheetah's adaptations, its claws, help make it the fastest running animal. Its claws help it catch its prey, which runs nearly as quickly to escape this running machine.

There are certain natural history facts that seem to be common knowledge. The elephant is the largest land animal, and almost everyone seems to know that the fastest running animal on the planet is the cheetah. Cheetahs are built for speed. They can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and can reach 65 mph when chasing their favourite antelope prey.