If you’ve watched enough big cat videos, you’ll know that cheetah cubs don’t meow or even make tiny roars—they squeak.
Viz., this adorable little guy:
h/t: Michael
Caturday felid: the voice of the baby cheetah
March 24, 2012 • 5:16 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Ooooo – heart melted, & my fattee cattee paused in her washing and looked around. But she also responds to mother cheetah calls too 🙂
thanks for posting.
Cheetah + squeak = squeatah! Or, squeetah.
Its eyes are amazingly and beautifully alien.
One of my cats doesn’t meow either.
She squeaks and chirps.
Another one was a feral cat for a few years. He never once said meow, although if he was really disturbed he could howl.
Why is it in an apartment?
I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that it’s not some rich guy/gal’s vanity pet. The most likely explanation is that it was abandoned by its mother (or was failing to thrive for some other reason), and is being hand-reared by keepers (which requires round the clock care). It’s not like baby cheetahs need a lot of space. I have heard that cheetah “kittens” are very friendly and sociable with humans when young, but become shy and skittish when the reach adulthood (which also pretty much describes the history of my domestic Pixie-Bob)
OK, maybe based on the additional comments I was overly optimistic in my initial assumption of professional care. On the other hand, since the kitteh appears to be in Africa, I don’t know how easy it would be for the rescuer to find proper care in a wildlife sanctuary. Also, what’s the problem with the TV running in the background?
Hi, sweetheart! Who’s a sweet widdle cheetah? Who’s a sweet widdle cheetah? Who is? You, that’s who…
Sorry.
Adorable… hungry or maybe wants to be untied?
Dr. Coyne, you’ve entrapped me in Catland on this big, big Saturday, looking at all the other baby kitty videos! What were you doing up so early at 5am?! 🙂
That is a very frightened little cheetah! Don’t you see how wide its pupils are? What the $$$$ is a little cheetah doing in an apartment with the TV on? Is this an advertisement for the illegal cat trade? Is this cheetah for sale? Who is tying up a little wild animal? Where is its mum?
The Youtube page says “This cheetah kitten named Nala was in Namibia Africa when I was visiting some friends of mine this past summer. Her mother was killed by a car, so my friends kindly took care of her. She was well fed and had 44,000 acres to roam around in and be safe. Enjoy!”
So, accepting that at face value, it’s an orphan being human-reared prior to wild release.
Accept that at face value given the video and the interior?
So if it is a rescue cat, why did the person not look for an appropriate sanctuary for its species? That would be much more appropriate than keeping it tied up at home with the tv running in the background and parading it proudly on a homemade youtube video. That’s just sick…
Clearly, just sick!