Is it true that cheetahs run as fast as a car? Follow the fact-finding journey with today’s guest Janet Rose-Hinostroza, a wildlife care specialist with The San Diego Zoo.
Is it true that cheetahs run as fast as a car? Follow the fact-finding journey with today’s guest Janet Rose-Hinostroza, a wildlife care specialist with The San Diego Zoo.
You can learn more about the San Diego Zoo Safari Park by visiting sdzsafaripark.org.
Do you have a fact you’d like us to investigate? Write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com. And check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsbookabout.com.
Is That True?
S1 EP05, Run as Fast as You Can!
[INTRODUCTION]
Arionne: Hi, I’m Arionne. I’m a journalist and a college professor. And I’m your host for Is That True? A Kids Podcast About Facts.
Each week, we’ll go on a fact-checking investigation. And we’ll do this with experts whose job it is to know these things. AND enthusiasts, who are people who just really love the topics we’ll be learning about.
As a journalist, I ask questions every day. Questions like: “Why is something the way it is?” Or “What happened in history?” Or “What can we look into to know more?”
And it’s so amazing to me that, now, I get to do all of that with YOU. We’re going to ask these questions TOGETHER.
And, along the way, we’ll learn how to check to see if we know what we think we know. Uncovering the truth is LOTS of fun for me. And if you’re a fact-finder, truth-seeker kind-of-kid, too, you’ve definitely come to the right place!
This season on Is That True? we’ll investigate bones and explore red rivers. We’ll farm on Mars and dig deep into how some of the tiniest things on earth work. And, we’ll learn a thing or two about how to sniff out the truth along the way!
[LISTENER QUESTION AND BREAKDOWN]
Arionne: The fact we’ll be investigating today is super cool. And, it’s all about speed!
Rudy: Hello, this is Rudy and I live at in Michigan, and I’m 6 years old, and I’m here to tell you about cheetahs.
And uh also cheetahs can run 60 miles per hour. That’s as fast as a car.
Arionne: As fast as a CAR? That is seriously fast, Rudy. And I have no idea if that’s true! So, we’ll have to investigate it.
But first, let’s talk about what a cheetah is. I know that it’s a kind of cat — a very LARGE cat that probably does run pretty fast. I just don’t know how fast.
Growing up, I absolutely loved seeing big cats like cheetahs at the zoo. I could stare at them all day! But I’ve only seen cheetahs from very far away. I actually am lucky enough to have gone on TWO real safari trips in South Africa, but I didn’t see any cheetahs. So I’m really excited to learn more about them.
I’m also excited to see how we can be better friends to them. Cheetahs are one of the species that are vulnerable. That means that there are less cheetahs around today than there used to be. And that if we don’t work to save them, they could be endangered soon. When a type of species is endangered, it means that it is very likely that they will become extinct or just not exist. We definitely don’t want that to happen!
So to learn more about cheetahs, I wanted to talk to someone who takes care of them.
After the break, we’ll go to the San Diego Zoo in California to speak with Janet Rose-Hinostroza. She’s a wildlife care specialist so if anyone can help us, it’s her! Be right back!
[INVESTIGATION]
Arionne: Welcome back to Is That True?, the podcast that explores how we know the things we know.
At the start of this episode, Rudy told us that cheetahs can run 60 miles per hour, as fast as a car. What do you think? Is that true? It’s time to investigate our fact from Rudy. And to look into that, I called up someone who works with cheetahs all the time.
Janet: Hi, my name's Janet Rose-Hinostroza. Provides animal care management at the San Diego zoo safari park.
Arionne: And like many of us, Janet has been interested in cheetahs for a REALLY long time.
Janet: I was just an animal lover from a really young age. And I was fortunate enough to grow up in Northern California, where there was a facility at the time called Green World Africa, USA. I would visit that facility and I would see people walk tigers on a leash through the park. And I went well, that's what I'll do because I love animals.
And there's a job walking tigers somewhere. So I say all the time, if I hadn't seen that, I might not have ever made that connection, that I could have this career path. And now I have it up to me and say the same thing, seeing me work with cheetahs and they say, oh, that's a real job. I might be able to do that someday.
Arionne: Janet is DEFINITELY the perfect person to help us investigate this fact. So I asked her: Is it true that cheetahs can run 60 miles per hour?
Janet: They sure can. That is a fact. So I know, and you'll be sitting in your car, Fasten your seatbelt and on seven freeways and cheetah could even too. So it's physical ability that cheetahs have.
Arionne: That is so amazing. Like, do we know why they can run that fast?
Janet: Yeah, it was a really good reason. There's this guy named Charles Darwin naturalist. And he taught us that there's a lot of different tools out there, but animals can't compete for exactly the same resource in the same place. One would keep the other, so we all have to have a niche of a specialization that is ours.
At least when we're talking. Nice. And so the cheetah has speed when they are competing in Africa, in the savannas, in the areas where, you know, lions and leopards and hyenas and wild dogs. This is a competitive place for some extreme predators and cheetahs. Can't compete with that. Pod to pod toe to toe, so to speak without having the special ability, which is their speed and nobody can touch the cheetah speed.
It is their unique adaptation and how they survive in such a competitive area.
Arionne: Oh, great. And does that like, so that keeps them safe. Would that be safe to say that it keeps them safe or is it more important that it keeps them able to find food or catch food? Or is it maybe a little bit of both?
Janet: Definitely a little bit of both. I mean, you're hitting on something really important. Cheetahs want to stay safe and think about it. If you're going to get into a brawl, into a fight with anything, especially, you know, a 500 pound lion with his 15 hairy best friends that travel everywhere with them, that that's not a good idea.
You know, you're going to get hurt. And if you get hurt in the wild. It doesn't mean you're going to survive. It probably means you aren't going to survive. So with cheetahs' ability to run so fast, they use it as a great defense mechanism as well. They avoid confrontation. They avoid getting in those fights.
I mean, if you can outrun any bully, June, July. Yeah. Like the void, the problem. And that is the tack that cheetahs will take. And it's a smart one.
Arionne: So unlike what you might think, cheetahs really don’t like to fight. And, Janet says they’re really cool cats. Even their faces are pretty cool.
Janet: Oh, gosh, do I, you know, my favorite thing to talk about on the cheetah is that I want to help people to identify cheetahs from the other spotted cats.
I mean, there's a lot of spotted cats out there in which one is it. And the easiest way to be able to differentiate the cheetah is to look at the face. Not only do they have these beautiful forward facing eyes, but they have Malar stripes. Tear mark, that runs from the corner of the eye to the corner of the lip.
And well only the cheetah has that Stripe out of all of the cats. And this is to help reduce sun glare. So in a way you can think that cheetahs are actually wearing sunglasses as a part of their adaptation to survive.
Arionne: Right. Like if we, if, if ever there was a way to say that it's a cool animal, like it's literally a cool animal.
They have their own sunglasses.
Janet: That's right. They do. And there's a really, it's very touching and kind of sad, African proverb, an old African tale to try to teach people in Africa, to recognize the cheetah and realize that this is an animal that they can live in harmony with. It's not an aggressive predator.
It's not going to want to go after them and caused them or their families. Harm or threat, and that is don't kill the cat that cries. So the story is that the first female cheetah that had Cubs, she lost her Cubs and she cried and cried and cried that her Cubs were gone and it stained her face and all the cheetahs where the marks of the first cheat mother that lost her Cubs.
So, you know, again, there's a lot of emotional story behind it and it's a great adaptation that has happened. It's an easy way to recognize them as opposed to the other cats.
Arionne: Wow. If we're able to either come to yours zoo or any zoo near us that has cheetahs, what are some things that we should look out for?
Like when we get to that part of the zoo?
Janet: Well, you definitely want to take in the majesty of the cat they're beautiful animals. And to be able to see one is. Our habitat. If you're anywhere in the United States, you're going to be able to see that cheetah and all of its glory with its gold for, and its black pattern spots.
But realize if you were seeing that cheetah in Africa, it's perfectly camouflage to live in that area. That's gold and grasses that grow as tall as six feet and they wave in the wind patterns. Speckles of shadows. So realize that that cat, again, perfectly suited to live in its environment has this great camouflage stability and just taken the respect of this, you know, fastest animal in the land, which is also a very shy predator.
Which has never caused harm to humans. And there are very few predators that I can say that about. And so, um, it's really unique to say that again, cheetahs are so much about avoiding the conflict and avoiding confrontation. Uh, we want to be respectful when we see them and we observe them to know that that cat's definitely more afraid of you than you are of it.
And we want to make sure that they feel respected and protected.
Arionne: Ah, I love that like the coolest cat around. So you need to, we need to respect it and be it's ran too.
Janet: Absolutely. And cheetahs are looking for friends. Uh,
Arionne: I love it. Thank you so much for helping us investigate this back. We appreciate it.
Janet: It's our pleasure. I hope people do get out to the San Diego zoo and the San Diego zoo safari park, and get a chance to see cheetahs, or like you said that their local zoos to support conservation and make sure cheetahs have some heroes behind.
[SUMMARY]
Arionne: So is it true that cheetahs can run 60 miles per hour and that it’s as fast as a car?
Yes! Cheetahs can run 60 miles per hour. Their speed helps them survive. It helps them catch food, but most importantly, it helps keep them safe. We learned that cheetahs are shy. They don’t really like to fight! So running fast really helps them avoid confrontation.
I never knew that. Thank you so much, Rudy, for helping us learn this fact.
[CLOSING]
Arionne: Thank you to wildlife care specialist Janet Rose-Hinostroza for being our expert today. You can learn more about the San Diego Zoo Safari Park by visiting sdzsafaripark.org.
Is That True? is written by me, Arionne Nettles. Our show is edited and produced by Ari Mathae with help from Matthew Winner. Audio production is by Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Do you have a fact you’d like us to investigate? Write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com. And check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsbookabout.com.