The cheetah is an amazingly fast cat that hunts its prey on the African savannas

Question

The cheetah is an amazingly fast cat that hunts its prey on the African savannas, sprinting for short distances at speeds approaching 70 miles per hour. The sloth in the Amazon rain forests of South America is a very slow creature that hangs from a tree by all four limbs and eats vegetation. How can this difference-that the cheetah can sprint at high speeds, while the sloth moves almost in slow motion- be explained in evolutionary terms? What modifications might occur to the cheetah’s ability to run if it were to occupy the same niche as the sloth, assuming the cheetah had no natural enemies there?

Explanation / Answer

Cheetah is evolved to run fast because it has to outrun its prey before others do. It immobilizes its prey within seconds. On the other hand, the sloths are evolved to be slow because in their geological niche they get mostly tree leaves to feed on which compels them to become more and more energy efficient. As a result of this they have less muscle mass and hence become slow in order to save energy.

If cheetahs occupy the same niche as sloths in the absence of enemies, they would tend to lose their speed over the course of time. There is no point of spending so much energy in becoming fast and also it the low calorie diet would not be able to meet its high mermtabollic rate.

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