What are the cheetah’s biggest enemies?

Cheetahs have their own set of challenges in the wild, and one of the main threats they face is lions. Lions, being apex predators themselves, consider cheetahs to be competition, especially for their territory and for their cubs’ protection. This makes them very aggressive, often attacking cheetahs upon sight. Even cheetah cubs, helpless and so tender, are not an exception to the lion’s brutal attack. This is puzzling because cheetahs do not pose any threat to lions whatsoever. They primarily feed on small animals such as gazelles and do not compete with lions either for food or other means. Besides, cheetahs do not harm lion cubs, yet it seems that lions are wired to get rid of them by acting preemptively to reduce risk.

Scientists speculate that this hostility could be due to lions not differentiating cheetahs from other large cats. The more widely accepted reason, however, is that this tendency of lions to kill cheetahs is rooted deeply in their survival behavior of removing all competitors. By killing the cheetahs, lions eliminate some of the predators in the food chain, leaving more for themselves and their pride. It is a crude plan, but one that visualizes the reality of the struggles of life in the wilderness.

Seldom do situations arise where cheetahs-protective mothers, particularly the lions even in highly unfavorable circumstances. A cheetah, at this point, might take on a menacing pose hissing and charging up toward the larger predator. This is often a display of bravado, but one that, when combined with some luck may sometimes turn a lion away from an attacking posture to allow cheetah cubs to survive. Such triumphs are rare and brief, but they show just how fiercely motherly cheetahs are toward their cubs and just how far they will go to protect them from a much larger adversary.

Ironically, although lions are the cheetahs’ worst enemies, lions’ own worst enemies are other lions. The social structure of the lion is based upon tireless conflict within the pride. Fighting among male lions is very common, and these power struggles have been known to cause high cub mortality rates. When a new male takes over a pride, for example, he usually kills the existing cubs so that only his offspring will be raised and his lineage will be secured. This is quite the opposite of the external struggle the lions have with cheetahs and other predators.

The relationship between lions and cheetahs consists of raw battles for survival in this merciless world of savanna. Lions act aggressively toward cheetahs because their instincts scream that if they don’t do so now, later on, cheetahs can become a problem. On those infrequent occasions when cheetahs do fight back, they defend the lives of their cubs. These dynamics together create a vivid picture of life in the wild, where survival often depends on strength, strategy, and instinct.