What types of cheetahs are there?

Answer 1

There are five living subspecies of cheetah, but the differences among them are very small. They are:

- Acinonyx jubatus jubatus, the type subspecies, from southern Africa

- A. j. hecki, the West African cheetah

- A. j. raineyii, from East Africa

- A. j. soemmeringii, from Central Asia (probably extinct)

- A. j. venaticus, from southwest Asia and India (today, only a remnant population lives in Iran)

There is a form called the "king cheetah," which is a genetic mutant form that has a different arrangement of spots. They have larger spots, stripes, and spots that merge into swirls and stripes. The king cheetah is not a separate species or subspecies, but just an odd color form that shows up from time to time in the cheetahs of southern Africa.
the common African cheetah and the king cheetah

Answer 2

All cheetah are descended from a small population during the ice-age as the only open plains in Africa at that time was a little area in South Africa - Cheetahs require open plains to run which is their means of capturing prey. So they are a very tight group. However there is a certain genetic set in their genome that every once in a while produces what is know as a King Cheetah. This a a cheetah that has it spots connected in little dumb-bell shapes. These however are cheetah born to normal cheetahs, not a separate type. There are two types of cheetah, one being called a cheetah and the other being being called a king cheetah.

Answer 3

There is basically only one "type" of cheetah. There is continued debate over the number of subspecies, and some investigators claim they number six, or even more. But many taxonomists have abandoned attempts to "separate" the different cats. And there is a good reason for this.

A number of biologists with in-depth experience regarding cheetahs suggests that during or about the time of the last ice age, genetic bottlenecking occurred in this cat. This left the few cats remaining to be very similar. Further, grafts of skin from one cat to another are not rejected, and this suggests an extraordinary degree of genetic similarity. By thinking this through, it becomes clear that immunosuppressants would have to be used to avoid rejection issues if there wasn't a very high degree of genetic similarity between different cats.

A link can be found below for confirmation and for more information.
-Cheetah -King Cheetah

Answer 4

Yes. Cheetah's are predominantly found in the jungles of Africa and India. The Asiatic cheetah can be found in India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan etc. The African cheetah is found in countries like Kenya, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe etc. numbers wise, the African species is more populous than its Indian cousin.

Answer 5

There are regular cheetahs and king cheetahs.

Answer 6

There is only one species of cheetah but there are several subspecies.