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Chiku the Cheetah (3/26)


This is also part of this series: All About Animals (26)

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Subjects: Animal Behaviour, Animals, Evolution, Natural History, Nature

Grade Level: K-Gr3
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No		 Running Time: 25 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No
Copyright Date: 2004
Available in French: No

In the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya, 12-week old Chiku has discovered how to hide in the grass using her spots as camouflage. She watches her mother chasing gazelle for dinner. The cheetah is the fastest animal on earth, capable of running up to 95kph, thanks to a very special design. More like a racing dog than a cat, it has a slender body, long legs and a small head, which makes it lightweight. Large nostrils and a big rib-cage help it to take deep breaths which power its running body with oxygen. It also has claws like running spikes to stop it slipping as it sprints. Plus a long bendy spine which lengthens its stride to 7 metres when it's sprinting flat out, giving it the edge in speed over all other animals. When she was born Chiku was just 30cm long and weighed under 300 grams. For safety, her mother kept the cubs hidden from predators in long grass. Though she is now growing teeth and eats meat, she still suckles milk from her mother. Soon she will learn to repel uninvited diners like jackals, hyenas and baboons, but there is one encounter she is not yet ready to handle - a life-threatening confrontation with the fiercest of foes, the lion!

Links: http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/

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