PHOTOS: Usain Bolt -- The World's Fastest Man With The Fastest Land Animal

From Getty: "World and Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt holds and pets cheetahs at the headquarters of the Kenyan Wildlife Service in Nairobi. The triple Olympic and world sprint champion in both the 100 and 200 metres events arrived in the land of long-distance running, ahead of the launch of an environmental charity campaign to preserve local ecosystems. The cub he's holding was named Lightning Bolt."

Check out these adorable photos of Usain Bolt with cheetahs.

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Comments

[bettyx1138]

cuuuuute

[sfden]

That makes my day!

[roshni]

Sweet! Enjoy them while they are little because you probably won't be able to pet them when they are bigger.

[MJinCanada]

If they are raised by humans you can -- but very, very carefully. I got to pet a lynx a couple of years ago. It was slightly more docile than the feral domestic cat I've been feeding for a year.

[Shwazy]

Cheetahs are surprisingly easy to tame relative to other big cats, actually.

I would even go so far as to say they make excellent pets if you can meet their needs.... which very very few people are equipped to do.

Regardless, it is best not to encourage any further domestication of a species that has such a tenuous grip on long term survival as a species in the wild. Its all about habitat preservation, an inevitably and tragically losing battle.

[IwantPEACE4All]

so beautiful. I would adopt them all if I could

[future primitive]

Cheetah trivia: Cheetahs are one of the least genetically diverse species on the planet. They are all virtually identical to each other. (This is also true of the pocket gopher.) The lack of genetic diversity was discovered around 25 years ago when researchers discovered that any cheetah can take a skin graft from any other cheetah anywhere.

This genetic bottleneck, likely occurring around 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, is one of the most important contributing factors to the cheetah being an endangered species today.

[mamacat]

One article I read some years ago estimated that all of the cheetahs alive today may be descendants of just 5 cheetahs that survived the evolutionary stresses of 10,000 years ago. Pretty amazing information. Too bad some wooly mammoths didn't survive somewhere, they would have been fun to witness.

Not sure, but I think I read that the last wooly mammoths lived on an island somewhere, until humans finally found them and killed them all, about 5,000 years ago.

[mamacat]

If the cheetah is the world's fastest land animal, but it's prey usually is able to outrun it, wouldn't that mean that it's prey is usually faster than the cheetah?

Just saying. If a + b = c, where a represents the speed of the cheetah, b represents the additional speed needed to outrun the cheetah, and c represents the speed of the prey animal which outruns the cheetah, wouldn't c have to be greater than a?

[insideoutgraphics]

You may want to add "H" to your equation. H for Human Hunters. Cheetahs are being killed by people. Hunters use guns, traps etc to catch their prey.

[MJinCanada]

They are very fast but only in short bursts, like a sprinter. If a gazelle or other such animal had a bit of a head start and a lucky zigzag, it would be able to get away because it can maintain its speed over a longer period than the cheetah, which would eventually have to fall behind for a breather.

[mamacat]

It seems that what you are saying is that it is not absolute speed which saves the gazelle, but a bit of tactics and luck. If the cheetah starts her sprint too soon or too late, or zigs when she should have zagged, she will not have enough stamina left to continue the chase and to catch the gazelle. Very logical.

[mlaiuppa]

Those cheetahs are just adorable. Beautiful.

[GirlUsingBrain]

Hey Everyone!

Catch the movie "Duma". It is a fantastic movie filmed in South Africa.

I'll give you a hint about what the movie is about ... Duma is Swahili for cheetah.

[GirlUsingBrain]

I am so happy that he has done this ... brings a good spotlight on conservation.

There is a zoo, really an animal orphanage, just outside Nairobi National Park. Most of the animals in the zoo are rescued orphans. I actually got to go into the cheetah pen and pet a cheetah. He was taking a nap after lunch ... and he was purring very loudly! A fantastic experience!

[wolfsvssarah]

Gorgeous, both of them :)

[Newthron]

Lightning bolt. That's a very good name.

[Samalabear]

Man and beast looking good -- absolutely adorable.

[kapalabhati]

Gorgeous.

[artgurrl]

Here kitty kitty kitty. Come and fetch the marshmallow out of my mouth. LOL.

[sgmorr]

Nice photos. I think Usain Bolt may be one of the most incredible athletes we have seen in a long, long time. He has put in some completely amazing performances so far.

[IamPhenom]

And it seems like he hasn't even given 100% of his abilities yet, which is scary. He almost toys with the other top world sprinters.

[CaptRuby]

Don't think anyone even came close, can't think of anyone who dominated his area that well.

[roshni]

he is amazingly talented and seems like a very nice person too.