First, a note to any impala suddenly rushed by a cheetah: Do not — repeat, do not — just zoom straight off as fast as four hooves can carry you.
The best escape move, according to analysis of the most detailed chase data yet from big cat predators, is some fluky turn, even though turning requires a slower stride. Swerve far enough, and the cheetah will be racing too fast to make the same turn.
Overall, cheetahs and lions are more athletic than the impalas and zebras they chase, but prey still have a chance, says Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London in Hatfield. He and his colleagues worked with researchers in Botswana to collect abundant motion data — several hundred thousand strides’ worth — from wild animals and reconstruct their sprints and turns. “You’re actually doing a step-by-step dissection,” Wilson says, “which is pretty cool.”
Wilson, a veterinarian and research scientist who describes himself as “an equipment geek,” began collecting data in 2011 on cheetah chases (SN: 7/13/2013, p. 9). “Typically your tracking collar will tell you where an animal is once an hour, or once every five minutes if you’re lucky,” he says. Wilson and his colleagues designed collars that record data for calculating position, speed and acceleration multiple times a second. The collar falls off animals after a certain time so that researchers can retrieve it and download data on the animals’ adventures.
Based on an analysis of predator-prey interaction, these panels depict three strides of a cheetah (blue) trying to hunt down an impala (red). The size of the dots indicate the range of possible landing spots for a stride (starting point is at the bottom of each panel). The cheetah is always fast enough to eventually catch up with the impala, but at slower speeds (top panel), the impala has the maneuverability to veer to a wide range of landing spots beyond the cheetah’s reach. At higher speeds (bottom panel), the impala doesn’t have as wide an…
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