What do cheetahs eatThe answer to the question, "What do cheetahs eat" is fairly simple. The cheetah lives in an environment that suites the cheetah. What suites the cheetah is sufficient space where he/she can use her skills. Her skills are running at high speed, which allows her to catch prey efficiently.
Her prey will come from the same environment. The environment is a biotope, where species of plants and animals live together - all adapted to that specific habitat. The cheetah is effectively at the top of the food chain as she runs too fast for the animals below her in the food chain. The cheetah uses vision rather than scent and has a 50% success rate. What is just below her in this habitat? What do cheetahs eat? This is what they eat................. Gazelles
 Thompson's gazelle - photo ©kumasawa  Grant's gazelle - photo ©Roger Meyer  Cheetah chasing
Thompson's gazelle - published under Wikipedia commons license.
A Thompson's gazelle is fast (about 50 mph) and can escape capture apparently about 50% of the time. This is probably due to swerving avoidance manoeuvres and tiring the cheetah, who as we know is faster but has limited stamina. The cheetah is built for speed not running efficiency (translated into stamina or endurance). Antelope  Kirk's Dik Dik a small antelope photo ©CokeeOrg Kirk's Dik Dik is a shy elusive and small antelope found in eastern and south western South Africa including Namibia where the largest population of cheetah are found.  Steenbok antelope photo ©Sharlee-H Impalas  Impala - photo
©Martin-Heigan
Impalas are wonderful athletes too. They are fantastic jumpers. They can jump horizontally up to 10 meters (about 33 feet) and vertically about 3 meters (about 9+ feet). They feed on the grassland and are in the middle of the cheetah food chain. Springbok  Springbok - photo ©sallylondon The Springbok is another fleet footed animal living in wide open places. The Springbok has a top speed similar to the other antelopes and the Impala at about 50 mph, 80 kph. They range in the south western corner of South Africa which includes Namibia, the country with the largest cheetah population. Warthogs  Warthog photo ©Turkinator The warthog is a wild pig. Cheetahs tend to (wisely) catch small warthogs. They are fast sprinters. Hare  Cape hare - photo ©Debbie and Gary The hare is a very fast runner and lives of the grass and shrubs. Uses avoidance manoeuvres to evade the cheetah, zig zagging. This may tire out the cheetah who can maneouvre well but less well than a hare as she is a lot bigger. A cheetahs partially retractable claws help in manoeuvring. Wildebeest  photo ©copyright jfkmlbcvq This is obviously an adult and cheetah usually hunt and kill the young of the bigger animals. In addition cheetah prey is zebra (younger animals), rodents, gamebirds, Guineafowl. What do cheetahs eat - Sources:
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