Station CHEE

Questions for Alan Wilson

Locomotion dynamics of wild cheetahs

How fast does a cheetah really run? To find out, Alan Wilson's research team at London's Royal Veterinary College used lightweight solar-powered collars fitted with GPS instruments. The GPS data were augmented with inertial-measurement technologies.

After testing the instruments on dogs, the researchers conducted experiments with five cheetahs in northern Botswana. Surprisingly, the fastest recorded speeds were only 20-25 m/sec, while the scientists were expecting to see values of 29 m/sec. Most of the time, hunting speeds were much lower, only ~15 m/sec. Why the difference? The researchers discovered that cheetahs are extraordinarily good at changing directions - as it turns out that the ability to maneuver is just as important as speed. More information on this experiment can be found at Dr. Wilson's website. Photograph credits: Wilson et al., 2013.