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The cheetah has held the position of being the fastest land animal. It's body built for speed, because of it's light and slender body with a smaller, and flatter rib cage to allow for more movement of the legs. The cheetah's spinal cord acts as a spring for longer strides enabling it to travel greater distances. A larger nasal capacity allows a greater intake of oxygen while running at high speeds. Having a slender body is a downside for the cheetah since it cannot defend it's prey from an animal like a lion. It hardly puts up any fight at all.

Cheetah's have been known to maintain speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. They cannot maintain this speed for long, because their body temperature heats up drastically and it could cause them brain damage or death so they need time to rest and recuperate to receive oxygen to the brain and to allow the body to cool down. It is the only member of the feline family to not have fully retractable claw, which provides better traction when running, but don't not help in a defensive attack (ex. mother poorly equipped to protect cubs).
Cheetah's have a gloomy and cloudy future ahead of them. Their own extreme specialization is having an impact of their lives and is making them extinct. Meaning their speed is causing their own demise, they have no defensive capabilities and they will go extinct in the wild it has already been determined.

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