Cheetah - the fastest animal on land - uses its incredible acceleration and manoeuvring rather than speed when it comes to hunting down its prey, scientists have found.
The animal gets this acceleration by exerting nearly five times more power than that of famed sprinter Usain Bolt during his record-breaking 100m run, researchers found.
Professor Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College in Hatfield, UK and his team at the college's Structure and Motion Laboratory followed five cheetahs in the wild for a year using tracking collars fitted with movement detectors and GPS systems.
In 367 predominantly hunting runs, they found that the cheetahs indeed run very fast at times - close to 60mph - but only occasionally.
On most hunts they attained about 30 to 35 mph but they were accelerating and changing direction much more rapidly than has been seen in any other land animal, BBC News reported.
They found that cheetahs could increase their speed by nearly 7mph in a single stride.
"They've arranged to have a low gear so they can accelerate very rapidly up to their top speed," said Wilson.
The researchers also found that cheetahs have a very strong grip and can even rip up the ground as they run.
It was the use of the animals' claws that enabled them to turn very sharply and to accelerate and decelerate very quickly, the study found.
The measurements have only been made possible because of the collars that have been developed by Wilson specifically for the experiment.
"It is very hard for GPS to work on an animal that is ducking and diving, so the collar is an innovation in its own right," he said.
"We've been working on GPS for 12 years and the collars are the result of those labours. They are not your typical GPS tracking system that you get in the car or phone.
"The GPS is far more accurate we are getting positions and speeds five times a second. We combine those with readings from other instruments and we finish up with something that is very much more accurate both in terms of speed and position and very much more robust," Wilson said.
The study was published in the journal Nature.
