大象传媒

The fastest animal on land, the cheetah, has had the run of the African plains for millennia, but sometimes speed just isn't enough. So far, this mother cheetah has succeeded in keeping her three cubs alive, when typically only one would reach its first birthday. Given half a chance, hyenas will kill cheetah cubs. Not only do they have strength in numbers, they are also bigger and heavier with bone-crushing jaws. To protect her young, the cheetah acts as a decoy, to draw the hyena away from her cubs. Inside, the cheetah's body fires into action ready for potential attack. Andrenaline is pumped into the blood stream causing her huge heart to double its rate to 250 beats a minute, sending extra oxygen and sugars to her enormous leg muscles. She is now ready to engage the enemy and runs at the hyenas to chase them off, but they aren't easy to scare and she makes repeated attempts, jumping on and over them before running a little way off, out of their reach. Eventually she wears them down and wards off further attack.