Name: Cheetah
Species: Acinonyx Jubatus
Weight: 65-110 pounds
Head/Body: 48-60 inches
Tail: 20-30 inches
Subspecies: 6
The most primitive of all cats, evolving some 18 million years ago, the cheetah is a tall, slim, long-legged cat, built along the lines of the greyhound. Its claws are only semi-retractable, and it has a distinctly dog-like muzzle. Its coat is yellowish-brown with dark brown spots and a long white-tipped tail.
The cheetah may be found in open grassland and nearby forests in all parts of Africa, the Middle East, and south-central Asia, where it hunts by day, from the ground, and seeks antelope and other grazing animals.
The cheetah is unique in several ways, and is the only member of genus Acinonyx. It is easily tamed and trained to the hunt and is the fastest four-footed animal on Earth, often achieving speeds in excess of 80 mph for short distances.
There are some few zoologists who classify the cheetah as a lesser cat, on the basis that it is definitely not a greater cat (can't roar) and must therefore be a lesser cat. These zoologists belong to the "you can't have a genus of one" school of biology. In our opinion, this is total nonsense. The world abounds with single-species genera -- the tuatara, a New Zealand reptile unlike any other reptile that isn't already extinct and roughly related to other reptiles the way the platypus is related to other mammals, comes to mind. Some of these zoologists do write books, however, and do get their ideas in print, which is why we mention them at all.