Cheetah Trivia
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50 free Cheetah trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This cheetah trivia quiz covers the fastest animal on land and one of the most fragile. The easy questions handle the basics: how fast it really runs, what makes it different from a leopard, where it lives, what it hunts and how it kills. The harder end goes deeper: the flexible spine and rudder tail that make the sprint possible, why the claws barely retract, the 'immobile nails' behind the name Acinonyx, the genetic bottleneck that lets unrelated cheetahs accept each other's skin grafts, the king cheetah mutation, male coalitions, chirps and churrs, hunting success rates, Iran's last few dozen Asiatic cheetahs, the 1947 shooting of India's last wild ones and the Namibian cheetahs released at Kuno in 2022, plus the Mughal emperor who kept a thousand of them. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our big cats, lions and African animals quizzes are the natural next stop.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the highest reliably reported running speed for a cheetah?
104 km/h (65 mph)
The popular figure of 114 km/h was discredited because of a faulty measurement method.
Q 02How quickly can a cheetah accelerate from 0 to 97 km/h (60 mph)?
In less than 3 seconds
Polo horses, by comparison, take 3.6 seconds just to reach 36 km/h.
Q 03What is the cheetah's scientific name?
Acinonyx jubatus
It is the only living member of its genus; jubatus is Latin for 'crested' or 'having a mane'.
Q 04The genus name Acinonyx roughly translates as what?
Immobile nails
It refers to the cheetah's limited ability to retract its claws.
Q 05The word 'cheetah' comes via Hindi and Urdu from a Sanskrit word meaning what?
Variegated or painted
In the past it was often called the 'hunting leopard' because it could be tamed for coursing.
Q 06Which two cats are the cheetah's closest living relatives?
The cougar and the jaguarundi
Together they form the Puma lineage, which split from other cats about 6.7 million years ago.
Q 07What facial feature is unique to the cheetah among cats?
Black tear streaks from the eyes to the mouth
They may cut the sun's glare or sharpen facial expressions; the leopard has rosettes instead of spots and no streaks.
Q 08Roughly how many black spots cover a cheetah's body?
About 2,000
Each is 3 to 5 cm across, and each cheetah's pattern is unique enough to identify individuals.
Q 09How do the cheetah's claws differ from those of most other cats?
They are only partly retractile and blunt
The dewclaw is the exception: large, curved and sharp, it hooks prey mid-chase.
Q 10What role does the cheetah's tail play at full speed?
It acts as a rudder
At only 2% of body mass it is too light to counterbalance; instead the thick fur adds 40% to its area and drag.
Q 11How long is a single stride of a galloping cheetah?
4 to 7 metres
Spinal flexion adds up to 76 cm per stride, and all four feet are off the ground for more than half the sprint.
Q 12Cheetah thigh muscles are how much bigger than predicted for a four-legged mammal of its size?
50% heavier
A lion's or tiger's are about what you would expect; the cheetah is built for sprinting alone.
Q 13How many teeth does a cheetah have?
30
Its small canines suffocate prey with a throat bite; blade-like carnassials let it bolt meat before bigger predators arrive.
Q 21Which sex of cheetah roams over larger home ranges?
Females
Females wander after prey; males settle smaller territories where prey and females are plentiful.
Q 22What is the intense, bird-like call a cheetah makes when excited or calling cubs?
A chirp
Cheetahs cannot roar; the chirp is likened to a lion's soft roar and the churr to its loud one.
Q 23Cheetahs mostly hunt prey weighing under what?
40 kg
Impala, springbok and Thomson's gazelles are favourites; Kruger has rare records of giraffe and buffalo calves.
Q 24How does a cheetah usually bring down its quarry at full speed?
Q 14How many cheetah subspecies did the IUCN Cat Specialist Group recognise in 2017?
Four
They are native to Africa and central Iran; an African subspecies was introduced to India in 2022.
Q 15What was the estimated global cheetah population in 2021?
About 6,500
The IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable; the largest population, nearly 4,000, is spread across southern Africa.
Q 16Before India's 2022 reintroduction, which country alone had wild cheetahs outside Africa?
Iran
The Asiatic population had fallen to about 43 animals by 2016, spread across the central plateau.
Q 17Who shot the last three wild cheetahs in India, in 1947?
Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh of Surguja
The last confirmed Indian sighting was a cheetah that drowned in a well near Hyderabad in 1957.
Q 18Cheetahs were reintroduced to India in September 2022 from Namibia into which reserve?
Kuno National Park
Eight animals were released; they produced 17 cubs, but by September 2024 eight adults and four cubs had died.
Q 19Iran declared which date its National Cheetah Day in 2006?
31 August
Iran had around 400 cheetahs before World War II; prey declines after 1979 shrank the range drastically.
Q 20What is a group of male cheetahs that live and defend a territory together called?
A coalition
They are usually brothers, though in the Serengeti about 30% of coalition members are unrelated.
It hooks the prey's legs or rump with its dewclaw
The stumble at speed can break the prey's limbs; the kill is then a throat bite held for up to five minutes.
Q 25How long does an average cheetah chase last?
About 38 seconds
A 2013 study found chases averaged 173 metres, with the longest at 559 metres.
Q 26What is the cheetah's success rate hunting Thomson's gazelles in the Serengeti?
About 70%
That beats the African wild dog at 57%, the spotted hyena at 33% and the lion at 26%.
Q 27Roughly what share of its kills does a cheetah lose to bigger predators?
9 to 14%
Its cheap, short sprints mean it can cope with a 25% loss and still recoup the energy in four hours of hunting a day.
Q 28How much meat does a cheetah eat on a typical day?
About 4 kg
One Etosha cheetah managed 10 kg in two hours; they eat fast, starting with the soft hindquarters.
Q 29How long is a cheetah's gestation?
Nearly three months
Litters of three or four cubs are typical, though up to eight have been born.
Q 30Cheetah cubs' long bluish-grey mantle may make them resemble which animal, deterring predators?
A honey badger
The mohawk-like mantle is shed as the cub grows.