Originally Posted by Hammock Parties
(Post 14328377)
Are cheetahs adapted to hunting in groups?
Only male cheetahs live and hunt in groups called coalitions, while female cheetahs raise their cubs in complete solitude.
Indeed, once adulthood is reached, cheetah brothers live together for life, hunting together and having each other’s backs right until the moment of death.
Additionally, unlike lions and leopards which are aggressively territorial, male cheetahs seem to tolerate outsiders and welcome them among their group.
In that way, male cheetahs have evolved to minimize the disastrous effects of their species’ usual weakness.
As such, thanks to teamwork combined with lighting speed, they can easily bring down prey as large as jaguars, panthers, lions, bears and even buffalos, which can be defenseless against the cheetahs’ relentless assault.
Nevertheless, male cheetahs are perfectly adapted to living and hunting in groups, while the females are solitary.
Mothers live with their cubs for about 36 months. Even under the mother’s watchful eye, about 70 percent of cubs are killed.
Lone males are not common and typically do not survive for long on their own. If they make it, cheetahs live up to 12 years in the wild (up to 17 years in captivity).
As animals that engage in a behavior called polygyny, male and female cheetahs will mate with many different members of the opposite sex during their lifetime.
Females can mate with several males in the span of a few days and have different fathers for the offspring in the same litter.
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