Mondo Knows Facts
A cheetah can accelerate faster than many sports cars
A cheetah can reach 60 miles per hour from rest in about three seconds.
With flexible spines, non-retractable claws that act like athletic cleats, and large nasal passages for rapid oxygen intake, cheetahs are built for extreme speed. However, their high-speed sprints consume so much energy that they can only last a few hundred metres.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
The cheetah is the fastest running mammal on landShort sprints achieve speeds up to 100 kilometres per hourSaltwater crocodiles possess the strongest bite force ever measuredA giant crocodile bite can exert over 16,000 newtons of closing force.Harpy eagle talons are longer than grizzly bear clawsCurved thirteen-centimetre talons exert hundreds of pounds of pressure.The peregrine falcon is the fastest creature on EarthIn its high-speed hunting stoop, the falcon can exceed 300 kilometres per hour.Nerve signals can travel up to 120 metres per secondMyelinated nerve fibres transmit electrical signals across the body in millisecondsThe peregrine falcon is the fastest animal in the kingdomHigh-speed hunting dives reach velocities over 320 kilometres per hour
Tags: cheetah, speed, predator
A cheetah can accelerate faster than many sports cars: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A cheetah can reach 60 miles per hour from rest in about three seconds. The figure is taken from San Diego Zoo, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.
