Basic behavior:

- African Cheetah is specialized in small yet fleetest mammals and antelopes such as gazelles or impalas. Cheetahs are built for high speed yet short chases, being able to reach a top speed of 58 mph they need to catch their prey within a 300 m distance. African cheetahs are mostly day time hunters preferring to actively look for food from 7 am to midday and 3 pm to 5 pm, they are not restricted however to not take the opportunity to hunt during the start of the night if there is still a minimum amount of light and if the opportunity of an easy meal presents itself, otherwise cheetahs will find a safe spot during night time to sleep. During those active times, cheetahs patrol their territories, mark scent posts, and in between rest or bond with other cheetahs depending on their group structure. 

- African cheetahs are mostly solitary, shy animals and have a rather simple social structure and personality similar to smaller cat species rather than the bigger felines like Leopards or Lions. Cheetahs are very shy animals and rarely even try to look for conflict with animals that are equally as strong or stronger, even to defend their offspring or their food. Social structures are rather simple and you can identify 2 types:

1. Coalitions are groups of brothers that have left their mother after reaching adulthood, however, these coalitions can allow other unrelated males to join their coalition or form one if the male is persistent enough. It won't be accepted directly and will most likely get attacked if it gets near for the first few times, however after a short while the male will be accepted in the group. These groups hold small territories that they protect from other male cheetahs, these territories are regularly patrolled and are set in the middle of multiple female cheetah territories and key grazing areas for prey items. There appears to be a set hierarchy but does not grant any kind of leadership or food priority but rather reproductive privileges granting the most dominant the most time with an estrus female

2. Solitary cheetahs are the regular social life of a cheetah, usually, those are females who only really experience social interaction when they rear their cubs, mate with males or defend their territories against other female cheetahs. Solitary males have the exact same lifestyle, holding territories in key areas and those males generally never experience a meeting with their cubs unless they are lucky. Old solitary males usually far beyond their prime don't join coalitions and prefer to stay alone, however, this can lead to a loss of territory, because of male cheetahs who live in coalitions.

- African cheetahs do not exhibit any kind of mating season, however, these predators can be extremely violent when mating happens. If a female is found by a coalition during estrus the coalition mates will fight each other constantly for the right breed and the most dominant individual usually has the larger take on the female and which can create frustration turning coalition mates on each other and the female, leading to violent slaps on either the female or the other males. Solitary males are generally friendlier and gentle when mating since they do not need to compete. The pair may stay together for a short while before parting ways after reproduction has been successful.

- African cheetahs like previously said, chase their prey on highly speedy chases but those last only a few meters. Therefore a cheetah must take acceleration to fully chase its prey but will also sneak up on it from a certain distance to easily close the gap as fast as possible. (50 m or 54 yards). A cheetah on the hunt usually uses vantage points such as termite/ant mounds, logs, hills, or even trees. Once the cheetah has selected a quarry it will either start moving forward, stalking it, or wait to see if the prey is moving to a different angle or moving right towards it. Cheetahs generally don't care about the overhaul health of the quarry selected, however, they do care about the size of the prey depending on how much food they require to fill their bellies. When targeting larger prey types and the hunt involves multiple cheetahs they will surround the prey waiting for an opening with some going for the throat and others trying to push it off balance. Cheetahs also don't exhibit any kind of strategy when hunting in groups and generally have multiple individuals chasing one target until one is actually caught.

- As previously mentioned cheetahs are incredibly shy because of their very light physical build, so most of the time they avoid conflict even when they have their enemy outnumbered. Lions, crocodiles, packs of painted wolves, groups of hyenas, and adult leopards are to be avoided at all costs. However, it has been noted that coalitions and mother cheetahs can stand up to lone or pairs of hyenas and painted wolves, Warthogs, Baboons as well as inexperienced leopards. Usually, as a main strategy of defense, a cheetah will try to intimate its foe before even engaging with it, it will try to keep it far away from its food or young and try to make it back off but if it doesn't work the cheetah can either attack as a secondary intimidation method risking injury or running away. Smaller predators and carnivores are easily dealt with and don't pose a major threat to a cheetah.
 
- Like most African felines Cheetahs do not like water and avoid swimming in it as much as possible, meaning if a prey decides to go in the water they either have to wait for it to get out or leave the scene.