Cheetah uses ‘inner ear’ in speed hunting
It is an organ that is essential for maintaining body balance
What makes cheetahs, the world’s fastest land animal, a successful hunter is not just their speed. Much of the credit must also go to their one-ofa-kind inner ear that helps them keep their gaze locked on prey during high-speed hunting, suggests new research.
The inner ear is an organ that is essential for maintaining body balance and adapting head posture during movement in most vertebrates.
The study, published yesterday in the journal Scientific Reports, found that the inner ear of modern cheetahs is unique and likely evolved relatively recently.
“If you watch a cheetah run in slow motion, you’ll see incredible feats of movement: its legs, its back, its muscles all move with such coordinated power. But its head hardly moves at all,” said lead author Camille Grohe from American Museum of Natural History in New York.
“The inner ear facilitates the cheetah’s remarkable ability to maintain visual and postural stability while running and capturing prey at speeds of up to over 100km an hour. Until now, no one has investigated the inner ear’s role in this incredible hunting specialisation,” Grohe said.
In the inner ear of vertebrates, the balance system consists of three semicircular canals that contain fluid and sensory hair cells that detect movement of the head.