I’ve heard that a Cheetahs heart is like a nuclear power reactor compared to other mammals including humans. Can someone explain why or how?
In: Biology
probably not very. Cheetahs can sprint at extremely high speeds for short periods of time, but unlike humans, they can’t jog for long periods which requires more cardiovascular strength.
Cheetahs are like drag cars, impressive for short bursts but terrible otherwise.
Meanwhile humans are more like a regular car, will lose in a drag race but can actually go for hours.
Sprinting is anaerobic (needs little to no oxygen), so the cheetah’s heart actually plays very little into their bursts of speed. Evidence of this is that they get really tired really fast as anaerobic use builds up lactic acid which causes soreness and fatigue, and cheetahs cannot sprint for very long before they are so exhausted they have to stop.
People who say their heart is the reason for their speed are grossly misinformed. The human heart is capable of supporting much higher levels of aerobic activity than a cheetah (or most other animals for that matter) which actually makes the human heart more like the nuclear reactor of the animal world.
Our heart is likely stronger than theirs. They’re muscles are significantly more efficient and hold more energy, but they need a large amount of time before they recharge. A decent runner could complete a marathon before the cheetah made it a few miles.
A cheetahs heart isnt really constructed any differently, but it does have a larger heart for its body size than other cats. Thats what makes it a sprinters heart, made for sudden change to a larger ejection volume and keeping up with blood pressure changes as the running muscles and lungs call for blood volume and oxygen.
The structure is regular mammalian in shape and everything else.
You want to get into weirder physiology around running, look at American pronghorn. They have HUGE hearts, oversized tracheae, larger pulmonary vessels, extra blood volume, extra red blood cells in their spleen and liver, much more muscle mass per body mass than average for a mammal, and more active mitochondria in their muscle cells
Well…a cheetahs weakness is it’s lungs and inability to sweat. Both of those cause the cheetah to overhear when running for a long time. Which is why they can’t. And why humans can. We have large lungs when compared to our body size and we sweat. Both of those allow us to run long distances.
Decided to look it up to actually answer your question.
Cheetah’s don’t seem to be remarkable design-wise; it’s not like they have extra chambers in their hearts or super blood or w/e. So the “nuclear reactor” comparison isn’t great. It’s simply that their organs are enlarged compared to their bodies. They have large hearts, large lungs, large nostrils, long legs, and relatively long claws on a body that’s adapted to be much smaller and lighter than other cats of similar sizes. Basically, they have an excess of energy (oxygen) being used for a body that needs less energy. The drag car is a much better comparison. This means they can breathe and run much more efficiently, allowing them to sprint with excessive speed and recover better from sprinting.
If they didn’t have these adaptations, they wouldn’t be able to run as fast and would suffer more from overexertion.
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