
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Zoologist Ben Garrod and veterinary surgeon Jess French delve deep into some amazing internal anatomy to unravel the secrets to survival of some of nature’s iconic animals.
They begin with one of the rarities of the cat family – the cheetah, which at just under two metres long, is the world’s fastest land animal capable of reaching speeds of up to 70mph in three seconds. As Ben and Jess reveal, the body’s rear muscles, large heart and nostrils enable it to achieve record breaking accelerations. But over long distances, it risks total exhaustion and predation from larger carnivores and the risk of losing its valuable prey. We hear during the course of this intricate dissection, how it treads a fine line between speed and stamina in the quest for survival.
By BBC World Service4.4
940940 ratings
Zoologist Ben Garrod and veterinary surgeon Jess French delve deep into some amazing internal anatomy to unravel the secrets to survival of some of nature’s iconic animals.
They begin with one of the rarities of the cat family – the cheetah, which at just under two metres long, is the world’s fastest land animal capable of reaching speeds of up to 70mph in three seconds. As Ben and Jess reveal, the body’s rear muscles, large heart and nostrils enable it to achieve record breaking accelerations. But over long distances, it risks total exhaustion and predation from larger carnivores and the risk of losing its valuable prey. We hear during the course of this intricate dissection, how it treads a fine line between speed and stamina in the quest for survival.

7,913 Listeners

863 Listeners

1,067 Listeners

5,576 Listeners

1,808 Listeners

1,729 Listeners

1,018 Listeners

1,996 Listeners

599 Listeners

756 Listeners

93 Listeners

410 Listeners

429 Listeners

818 Listeners

756 Listeners

746 Listeners

227 Listeners

363 Listeners

471 Listeners

240 Listeners

3,245 Listeners

779 Listeners

116 Listeners

1,010 Listeners