Cheetahs
"The sound of fear crept across my heart as I knew the presence of this creature was mingled with my own. With eyes cutting the vacant field, I suddenly found myself in the state of an anxious heart, a trembling knee, and a doomed sanity of mind when I fell into the realization that I was only to be found in the presence of the creature, as his looked to overrun my own. When I saw him, it was though the time of existence heretofore was but less than a flash. To look into his spell binding eyes was to look into the mesmerization of the greatest minister of the kingdom. Fate dawned upon my mortality and I quaked with the fear of the world. Here in this land, here in the fact of reality existed a creature whose consciousness was professed from his eyes in proclamation of his superiority over all. Nobility, brilliant thought, and keen dominance was there emitted from his locality. I could not flee..."
In a personal prospective, this person would appear to be one who had encountered an animal with the ability to quickly suppress supremacy over who ever it encountered. Such an animal would be, in all respects, a cheetah. If you have ever fought hand to hand with a cat, and had the opportunity to stare into the undressed eye of him, you could merely begin to understand where this writer is coming from. In a personal view, cats are amongst the (if not are the) most agile, intelligent, creative, and insidious of all animals. The cheetah is a member of this family!
Cheetahs are often mistaken for leopards,
another member of the cat family, another animal with a spotted body, however not an animal with the unique qualities of the distinct cheetah. In technicality, they are named Ancinonyx jubatus, cheetahs unlike leopards have a distinct tear streak down the side of each nostril.
The tear streak is always dark, which benefits the cheetah in that the dark color diminishes a bit of the sun glare and provides it with much better sight capabilities then it would thus otherwise have. Cheetahs are most commonly known as being a spotted animal with incredible speed. Both of these facts are true, and in fact, when it comes to spots, their very name could portray just as much.
The word 'cheetah' comes from a Hindi word meaning 'spotted one'. As for their speed, the fact that they are extremely fast animals has not passed the spectators realization, but more stuck like glue to it. Cheetahs are in fact a very fast mammal, in that they have the capability to bullet from 0 - 55 mph in a matter of a few seconds (3 to be exact), moreover though, cheetahs are able to reach speeds of 71 mph! Now that is extremely fast for an animal! However cheetahs will fall short of stamina after about 300 yards of this speed, but this still does not take away from my, nor anyone's immediate decline to be chased by one.
There are many elements that contribute to the ability of this remarkable cat to perform such maneuvers. First off the claws of cheetahs are non-retractable, meaning they cannot be drawn into the skin, which makes them act as cleats, in a manner of speaking, allowing quick acceleration as well as sudden braking and course changes. The tail also takes part in course correction, where by using the weight of their 28 - 32 inch tail, a rudder effect can be created to turn them rapidly around! The spine can be thought of as a powerful spring, where when contracted, the rear legs may actually be brought forth in front of the forelegs, and then springing back out, the spine and legs together deliver incredible propulsion. The slenderness of their bodies and light bones allows them an ease of running compared to that of the leopards.
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