The cheetah crouches in the undergrowth. When a young antelope strays a little too far from the herd, the cheetah explodes out of the bush — and, with a burst of speed unrivalled in the natural world, brings down its next meal. Or so we have assumed. But the first study to collect data on the animals movements in the wild reveals that, contrary to popular opinion, a cheetahs sheer speed is not its only weapon when it comes to hunting. Its success as a predator also hinges on its lightning reflexes and its ability to accelerate faster than a Ferrari. Determining just how fast animals run is no easy task. In zoos, captive cheetahs lured to run in a straight line can attain speeds of up to 29 metres per second — nearly 105 kilometres per hour (N. C. C. Sharp /. Zool. 241, 493-494; 1997), more than double the top speed achieved by a human sprinter. But nobody had been able to determine whether the animals actually reach these speeds in the wild.
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