Fastest Cat for the Fastest Man

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animal on November 3, 2009 at 11:55 am

Usain Bolt, who holds the world record for both the 100- and 200-meter sprint, adopted a cheetah named Lightning Bolt, but he isn’t going to make the cheetah into a house cat. Bolt paid $13,700 for adoption rights, and has pledged $3,000 a year for the cat’s upkeep at a wildlife center in Nairobi. The money helps to support the Kenyan Wildlife Services and their efforts to protect endangered species.

The world record holder appeared more comfortable later while handling his baby cheetah, which was the size of a fully grown domestic cat. He cradled the fuzzy-headed cub while feeding it bottled milk as cameramen snapped away.

When asked if he was afraid of cheetahs, Bolt said: “Yes, I was, but not anymore.”

Lighting Bolt is among three cubs rescued by KWS officials after their mother abandoned them in a game park.

Link -via Digg

(image credit: AP/Karel Prinsloo)

 
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The Robot Cheetah

Posted by Miss Cellania in Science & Tech on October 19, 2009 at 1:34 pm

Sangbae Kim, a robot designer from MIT, is probably best known to Neatorama readers as the inventor of the Stickybot, a robot that can climb walls with feet modeled after a gecko’s sticky feet. He also used the idea of scuttling cockroaches for a robot called the iSprawl.

Kim’s latest project is a robot inspired by the cheetah. The idea is build a prototype robot from a lightweight carbon-fiber-foam composite that can run at the cheetah’s speed of 70 miles per hour.

It’s an ambitious project. Current wheeled robots are efficient, but can be slow in rough terrains. For instance, iRobot’s PackBot, which is used by the U.S. military, can only travel at speeds of up to 5.8 miles per hour.

“Most wheeled robots today can do very well on flat surfaces, but they are slow,” says Kim. That’s why he’s looking to the cheetah for ideas. The cheetah has an extremely flexible backbone that gives extra speed or force to its running motion.

The project is expected to take about 18 months. Link

 
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One Fast Cat

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animal, Sports, World Records on September 9, 2009 at 10:09 pm

Sarah, a cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo, set a world record for the 100 meter dash today by covering the distance in 6.13 seconds. The event was held at Mast Farm, the zoo’s cheetah breeding facility. The race is a remote contest between Sarah and Zaza, a cheetah at Cheetah Outreach in South Africa. Zaza is expected to run her race later this month. To compare, the human world record is 9.58 seconds, held by Usain Bolt. Link to story. Link to Sarah’s blog. -via Metafilter

 
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The Mechanical Art of Andrew Chase

Posted by John Farrier in Arts & Crafts on July 16, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Andew Chase is a photographer who creates mechanical sculptures of animals and photographs them in different poses. This cheetah is his latest creation in preparation for his photo book Trionic Morphatractable Engineer.

Artist’s Official Website

A motion capture film of the cheetah

Via io9 (which has pictures of some of his best works)

 
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Living with Really Big Cats: Cheetahs, Lions, and Tigers

Posted by Alex in Animal on June 27, 2009 at 1:22 pm

If you think having to "share" your bed with your pet cat is bad, that’s nothing compared to what Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen has to do: the sanctuary worker shares her South African home with really, really big cats: four cheetahs, five lions, and two tigers!

Riana bought her first cheetah, Fiela in 2006, after realising the big cats were in trouble and heading for extinction with only 1000 left in Africa.

She left her full time job working for the department of justice – a position she had held for 22 years – and found temporary employment on a game ranch where she could raise her beloved big cat. [...]

The cats in Riana’s own home are truly part of the family and are allowed to roam freely.

Imagine the size of their litterbox! Amy Oliver of the Daily Mail has more: Link (Photo: John Lienbenberg/Barcroft Media)

 
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Rare Cheetah in Algeria

Posted by Queuebot in Animal on February 25, 2009 at 8:38 am


Did you know that cheetahs lived in Algeria?  Not too many of them.  This is one of the first-ever camera-trap photos of an extremely rare Saharan subspecies taken in late summer of 2008. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that these cheetahs number only about 250, putting them on the critically endangered list. Research fellow Sarah Durant of the Zoological Society of London, who co-led the cheetah camera survey, admits that no one knows why this subspecies is in such bad shape, and that no one has been studying them to find out. 

Link

(image credit: Farid Belbachir/ZSL/OPNA)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

 
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