Lifestyle and Behavior
Within the same species, as shown in the modern species Panthera onca, the South American jaguar and Panthera tigris, the Asian tiger, individuals in higher and colder areas acquire larger sizes. The fossil record for cheetahs is scarce. In contrast to Smilodon fatalis, severe injuries lead to death and there is no sign of cooperation as seen in the latter species of machairodont. Fossils suggest a lifestyle similar to the modern cheetah species: solitary, except for mothers a cubs and possibly siblings as seen with cheetah brothers, more specialized hunting tactics that narrow the number of species being hunted and therefore increasing the size of a territory and causing the species to be spread out more thinly than the much more adaptable modern Panthera pardus, or leopard. Vertebrate paleontologist Alan Turner suggests that "since it had the bodily proportions of the living cheetah, and since running speed is a reflection of stride length for a given stride frequency, such large animals may also have been capable of running somewhat faster than their living relatives, although greater weight may have countered any advantage of greater size. Whether they needed to run faster is less clear." The motivation for Acinonyx pardinensis achieving large size could be to keep warm, to move faster, to subdue larger prey, or a combination of the three.
On the same field as the modern cheetah, it would have been a relatively successful hunter, very wary of injuries, and rarely came into contact with others of its species. It would have been cautious, preferred fleeing to fighting and would have been wary of prey that was too large and capable of injuring the cheetah. Cooperative hunting would generally have been out of the question and mortality rates in the young would have been high. The modern cheetah must stop running after about 60 seconds, or when its body temperature rises over 104 degrees Fahrenheit and this large species would have had these confines as well.
Read more about this topic: Giant Cheetah
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