One of the three male Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) at the Philadelphia Zoo. While many cats are known for their solitary habits, cheetahs can be quite social (although they do not possess the some sort of social system seen in Lions [Panthera leo]). In the wild males often will form coalitions of two, three, or even four individuals, often being brothers from the same litter. Outside males can be accepted into a coalition, but more often than not the groups are made of brothers, a coalition being much more likely to gain a territory of its own than a single individual. I could be wrong as I have not studied the hunting behavior of such coalitions in the field, but it does not seem to directly resemble the social hunting tactics of lions, as most footage I've seen usually has one male cheetah being the primary pursuer, the others to the side to try and catch the prey if it suddenly diverts course. Once they prey is captured, though, coalitions have to share food amongst themselves, likely trading the frequency of successful hunts with less food at any particular meal. (As Ian notes in the comments, though, cheetahs are very successful and the coalition does not appear to significantly increase the amount of food they catch. Instead, it seems coalitions are more important to territory, but a consequence of forming a coalition is charing kills with other members of the group.)
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Once they prey is captured, though, coalitions have to share food amongst themselves, likely trading the frequency of successful hunts with less food at any particular meal.
I think the dynamic is slightly different. Compared to other cats, cheetahs are extraordinarily successful hunters, per attempt. I can't remember the exact numbers, but cheetahs are successful in something like half their attempts, compared to a tiger's success rate of 10-20%. Lions are intermediate, but closer to tigers than cheetahs. Cooperative hunting by cheetahs likely wouldn't increase the success rate dramatically.
The difference is that the cost of hunting is much higher for a cheetah than one of the other big cats. A tiger's attempt involves some hiding and creeping up, and a brief burst of activity; if a tiger misses its kill, it shrugs and moves on to the next attempt. If a cheetah misses its kill (or succeeds, for that matter) it lays in the shade and hyperventilates for ten minutes. There's a terrible physical cost to the cheetah's speed.
By sharing hunts, the cheetah coalition is spreading out the cost, not the reward, of hunting.
I don't know if the coalition would also more successfully defend their kills. Cheetahs apparently lose a lot of their kills to other carnivores. Partly this is because they have to recuperate for such a long time after they make a kill, so they're not physically capable of defending a kill for quite a while -- the coalition might help here. However, I've also read that cheetahs usually don't even bother to try to defend their kill, just walking away even from vultures and the like, never mind lions and hyena packs.
Ian; Thanks for your comment. You're right in that cheetahs are highly successful on their own, much more so than other big cats, but from what I understand coalitions may have slightly more success although the primary function of the "team" is to obtain a territory. I will attempt to find the reference.
You're also right in that cheetahs expend a lot of energy in a hunt, and I wasn't suggesting that they purposefully create coalitions to share rewards. What I was saying was that there is a consequence to being a coalition when it comes to food, namely that it is shared amongst the other members of the group.
I don't think coalitions would be able to successfully defend their kills against other large predators like lions or hyenas. While a coalition might successfully drive off an individual cheetah that's in the area, they're far too slightly built to defend their kills against lions or hyenas. Indeed, cheetahs often eat quick and give up the carcass if threatened by a more formidable or numerous predator, the danger not being worth the prey they caught.
Cheetahs have been my favourite cat ever since I was a little kid; there's something so attractive about them, perhaps their legendary speed, their slim, gracile proportions, or the fact that they're just so different from all the other extant cats. (One old book I have put the cheetah in a monotypic subfamily apart from all the other cats)
Another thing must be those eyes: intense, yet perhaps not quite as menacing as the glare of any other big cat. (Perhaps some ancient memory of cheetahs being relatively harmless compared to leopards or lions?) One thing you've captured very well in this photo is the way cheetahs always seem to have purposeful gaze, as if every movement is premeditated beforehand with some intent. I can just imagine this particular cheetah sizing up a herd of impala or gazelle before getting off the termite mound he's sitting on. (Oh, I notice that this cheetah seems a little hefty in the photo. Do the cheetahs living in zoos in temperate climates grow thicker coats as winter approaches?)
As for male cheetah coalitions, I certainly agree that it primarily has to do with defending a territory against solitary interlopers. Probably the same can be said about male lion coalitions. As for whether it helps in hunting... I'm not sure how accurate nature documentaries are, but if my memory serves me correctly, it does appear that male cheetah coalitions do derive some benefits, particularly in obtaining prey that a single cheetah might not be able to tackle so easily. Some examples that I can try and recall right now include:
(i) Larger prey; subadult wildebeest, and if I remember correctly, even young zebra.
(ii) Grant's gazelle; Sam principle as the preceding one: multiple cheetahs being capable of bringing down prey that would be too large or too dangerous for a single cheetah to handle safely. Two or three cheetahs might have a much easier job subduing a Grant's gazelle, minimising the risk of getting jabbed with those horns in the struggle. I still recall how in one of those documentaries, a mother cheetah got mortally wounded by a Grant's gazelle.
(iii) Warthog piglets; it's easier to distract the mother warthog and then snatch a piglet or two.
Coalitions might conceivably have a better chance defending kills against scavengers like vultures and jackals, taking turns to chase scavengers away while the others dine. Maybe even have moderate success in seeing off solitary hyenas. (Of course, this is ALL based on observations from television, which is hardly the best form of empirical evidence)
All this is most probably an incidental advantage of forming a coalition in the first place. Apart from the long-term coalitions formed by males, the only other ways cheetahs could enjoy such hunting benefits would be if a mother was accompanied by full-grown young on the verge of independence, or if newly independent cubs of any combination of sexes (say, sisters, or a mixed group of brothers and sisters) stayed together before striking out on their own. But perhaps the benefits to hunting success are not great enough to compel all cheetahs to form coalitions.
And I've just thought of something; perhaps our ancient ancestors may have benefited from cheetahs as providers of food. Given that baboons can readily dissuade a cheetah to leave a fresh kill, I could see a group of hominids tossing stones and brandishing sticks and making a big show out of it. We need to find any instances of chimpanzees interacting with cheetahs in the wild!
And just another random thought: I wonder if anyone out there in North America happens to have a tame cheetah that's also capable of hunting and catching prey on its own, and letting it go hunt pronghorn. Now THAT would be awesome on so many levels: the 2 fastest land animals going head to head with each other, and besides, I'll bet the pronghorn have never needed to run so fast from any other predator since the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. I know, Acinonyx isn't exactly that close to the extinct Miracinonyx, but it would be the closest thing we can get to witnessing one of those things that Clovis probably saw on a regular basis.
According to Jonathan Kingdon in his excellent and highly informative book 'The Kingdon Fieldguide to African Mammals', cheetah coalitions are indeed more succesful at hunting prey and can also kill larger prey, if they so wish. Kingdon says that, occasionaly, such groups even manage to take down zebra or young buffalo but that this is rare.
Brian, thanks for the info, and the reference to Kingdon, which I'll certainly look up. Laelaps, I hope I didn't come across as being snarky or trying to correct you -- I was just fascinated by the subject. The reason is that my son, like Hai-Ren, has been rather cheetah obsessed since he was small (i.e. for the past two years), so I've been doing a great of of reading aloud starting from things like "Cheetahs: Nature's Children" and as much as possible moving on to more detailed tomes.