Cheetah acceleration more important than top speed

Science : Although cheetahs are the fastest land animals on Earth, it turns out that for hunting, their ability to stop and turn is more important than their speed. Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College in London and his colleagues developed a collar equipped with GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and other sensors to record the movements of cheetahs when they hunt. To extend the collars’ recording ability, the researchers also included solar-powered battery chargers and sensors that activated the collars only when the cheetah moved at the times of day when it was known to hunt. When operating, the collars record data 300 times a second and relay them to the researchers. Over 18 months, five cheetahs wore the collars, which recorded 367 hunts. The data showed that the animals usually maxed out at 60% of the recorded top speed of 106 kph, and they usually only reached that speed for one to two seconds. The key to the cheetahs’ hunting ability is that they can rapidly slow down in a single stride and then turn and accelerate again with four times as much power as the fastest human sprinters. They also found that the animals often hunted in nongrassland areas and throughout the day, not just at dawn and dusk.