Able to reach speeds up to 70 m.p.h. for short sprints, the cheetah is the world’s swiftness land animal. The cheetah becomes so exhausted after catching prey that it takes this cat a half an hour to catch its breath before it can eat its meal. Though we associate cheetahs with Africa, they once roamed areas from south Africa north into India. Today Cheetahs live in the African savanna where they hunt impalas, gazelles and young wildebeests. There are less than 200 cheetahs in small isolated populations in Iran where it preys on sheep, wild goats and rabbits. Once numbering 100,000 in their historic range in the early 1900’s, the Cheetah’s population has dwindled to about 10,000 today.