How fast is a cheetah? What the research actually measured

The numbers at a glance

How scientists measured wild cheetahs

Older top speed figures came mostly from a handful of timed runs, often by captive cheetahs chasing a lure on a track. In 2013 a team led by Alan Wilson at the Royal Veterinary College, working with the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, published the first detailed measurements of wild cheetahs hunting. They designed collars combining GPS with motion sensors and fitted them to five cheetahs in northern Botswana.

Over 367 runs, mostly hunts, the fastest speed recorded was 25.9 m/s. The five cheetahs' individual best speeds ranged from 20.1 to 25.9 m/s, and the average top speed of a run was 14.9 m/s. In other words, wild cheetahs usually do not run anywhere near flat out.

If not top speed, what wins the hunt?

The same study recorded some of the highest values ever measured in a land mammal for acceleration, deceleration and turning. Reporting on the study noted acceleration power of up to about 120 watts per kilogram of body mass, roughly double that of the fastest racing greyhounds. Successful hunts typically involved hard braking and sharp turns as the prey dodged. The cheetahs in this study mostly hunted impala, often in fairly thick vegetation, so agility mattered more than straight line speed. The authors suggested cheetahs chasing fast gazelles on open East African plains may use higher speeds.

What makes a cheetah so fast?

• Flexible spine: it flexes and extends with each bound, adding to stride length, which can reach about 7 m.
• Long legs and big thigh muscles on a light, slim frame of 23 to 65 kg.
• Semi retractable claws that stay partly out, acting like the spikes on running shoes for grip when accelerating and turning.
• A long tail, about half the head and body length, used for balance and steering in turns.
• Large lungs, heart and nasal passages, which help it take in air quickly, including while it holds a suffocating bite on its prey after the chase.

How long can a cheetah keep it up?

Not long. Cheetahs are sprinters, and the IUCN Cat Specialist Group notes that chases seldom cover more than about 300 m. A common explanation was that cheetahs give up because they overheat. A 2013 study by Hetem and colleagues, which measured body temperature in free living cheetahs, found that body temperature did not rise enough during hunts to explain stopping, and that it rose more after a successful hunt than during the chase. Their conclusion was that cheetahs do not abandon hunts because they overheat. The more likely limit is the extreme energy and muscle effort of each sprint.

After a chase a cheetah usually needs to rest and recover its breath before eating, and this is when lions and spotted hyenas may steal its kill.

Is the cheetah really the fastest land animal?

Yes. No other land animal has been reliably measured running faster over a short sprint. For comparison, the Nature paper's editorial summary notes that racing greyhounds reach about 18 m/s, well below the cheetah's measured best of 25.9 m/s.

Key takeaways

• Best measured wild speed: about 93 km/h (58 mph).
• Most hunts are run at moderate speeds; agility decides success.
• Sprints are short, rarely over about 300 m.
• Overheating is not why cheetahs stop, according to direct temperature measurements.

More on the species in our cheetah facts page.