The Second Fastest Animal in The World

Now many people would assume given the fact that the cheetah is the fastest land mammal, boasting speeds of over70mph to be another big cat. This is not only, not the case but it is not even close to being accurate. This is because the cheetah is so heavily specialized for speed and catches its prey with a straight chase compared with many of the other 6 big cat species that employ a mixture of ambush power, and strength using one big leap to wrestle down prey and this need for muscle makes them heavier and less suitable for speed. So discounting the other big cat species, the next train of thought could lead you to believe that the second fastest land mammal is an antelope or gazelle that the cheetah hunts, after all an evolutionary battle produced the speed that the cheetah possesses so it would follow that this speed would have been developed to catch a fast animal, this would however also be wrong  as the cheetah’s prey has no chance of outrunning the cheetah instead uses agility to dodge out of the big cat’s path. The winner of the speed contest (not including the cheetah of course) goes to the North American Pronghorn!