Student Quote: "I'm not talking; I'm Word Processing!"
Microsoft word: mla reports
demonstration #1: cheetahs
An animal that can be found in the semi-desert grasslands of Africa is the cheetah. Cheetahs are large cats with golden fur and black spots. They are about 2 ½ feet tall at the shoulder and five feet long—not including the tail which is 2 ½ feet long—and weigh about seventy-five pounds. Its long tail helps it with balance and they do not have retractable claws like most cats. The claws provide for excellent traction.
Cheetahs are very active, mostly during the day. They run around, play and climb trees. They are the fastest terrestrial animals. They can reach an amazing speed of seventy-five miles per hour. That is faster than the legal speed limit for a car and can be reached by a cheetah in nearly half the time. However, this maximum speed does not last for long. Perhaps a few hundred yards, just enough time to catch its prey.
A cheetah’s diet consists of gazelles, impalas, the calves of large ungulates, rabbits, rodents, young zebras, and small mammals and birds. When in captivity, they are fed ground meat mixtures, chicken fryers and vitamin and mineral supplements. When a cheetah moves in on its prey, it does not take long for the chase to end. It can last for about a minute at the longest. Catching its prey is what the animal uses its incredible speed for.
Cheetahs can usually be found alone or in groups consisting of a female with cubs of two to four related males. They often make a variety of sounds such as aggressive vocalizations, purrs of content, a chirping sound made by a female to her cubs and an explosive yelp. A wild female cheetah normally gives birth at intervals of 17-20 months. The gestation period is 90-95 days. There are usually from 3 to 5 cubs in each litter, each one weighing approximately 5-7 ounces. The young cheetah’s eyes would open after a maximum of 11 days. Their mother teaches them how to hunt. They leave their mother at 15-17 months, and attain sexual maturity by the age of 22 months. A cheetah’s life span in the wild is 10-12 years, whereas ones in captivity have live to a long life of 19 years.
Cheetahs are, however, now an endangered species. There are only about 10,000 of them left in the wild. There are approximately 300 in North American zoos. Some of the reasons for which they are becoming so rare are because of the excessive hunting of both cheetahs, and their prey as well as the fur market. Also the spread of people and their livestock into the cheetah’s habitat has been another cause. Today there are many organizations dedicated to bringing the number of cheetahs in the world to a higher number. They plan to rescue, breed and study cheetah in the wild with hopes of taking another animal off the endangered species list.
demonstration #2: works cited
Dansereau, D.F. “Learning Strategy Research.” Thinking and Learning Skills. Vol. 1. Hillsdale,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1985, 21-40.
Usova, George M. Efficient Study Strategies. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing
Company, 1989.