I have a friend who did her college internship at a zoo. She mostly worked in the big cat unit. As expected the lock out procedure for entering an enclosure was very strict.

One day a maintenance man was in the cheetah enclosure on a ladder and some how the cheetah was not properly locked out. It came over to the ladder and started rubber on it. The terrified maintenance man just waiting for the cheetah to knock the ladder over and eat him.

As soon a the cheetah keeper saw this they quickly come into the enclosure, scruffed the cheetah and dragged away. Cheetahs are a little special.

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[–] doctordevice@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

This is probably just my layperson showing, but I honestly wouldn't be all that afraid of a cheetah. If I were in that situation in any other big cat habitat I would be absolutely terrified. Smaller cats like lynx I wouldn't really be afraid for my life but I would be fearful of attack and injury.

Cheetah I wouldn't really feel much fear, more just confusion about what I'm supposed to do. They really don't have the same cat software that all the others have. Much more chill.

[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Yeah they are definitely running a light version of cat 2.0

Apparently in the wild it is very possible for many cheetahs have brain damage. Basically they run so fast they can raise their body temperature above a save temperature for brain tissue. On the hunt this limiting factor for how long they can run. So it is very possible that over many huts they have a few less brain cells then when they were born.

[–] CommissarVulpin@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Cheetahs are quite a bit more fragile since they’re optimized for speed. Any injury could hamper their ability to hunt, so as a result they’re more skittish and flighty than the other big cats. In zoos they often raise cheetahs alongside dogs, giving them a service animal of sorts so they are calmer around the weird hairless monkeys and don’t get stressed out as much.