Bone Consumption by Cheetahs at Undisturbed Kills: Evidence for a Lack of Focal-Palatine Erosion

The feeding behavior of wild and wild-caught, captive cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) was observed to determine time spent at kills, the amount of food consumed, and especially, which, if any, bones were consumed. Wild cheetahs stayed with kills up to 11 h. Individual cheetahs consumed up to 10 kg of food in <2 h. Cheetahs consumed all bones, except the skull, of prey weighing < kg, and consumed a substantial proportion of the rib cage and vertebral column of 30–50-kg prey. Juvenile cheetahs (aged 6–16 months) had no difficulty crushing and consuming bones.