Cheetahs on the Edge — Director’s Cut

Cheetahs are the fastest runners on the planet. Combining the resources of National Geographic and the Cincinnati Zoo, and drawing on the skills of a Hollywood action movie crew, we filmed cheetahs in a way that’s never been done before, for an article in the November 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Using a Phantom camera filming at 1200 frames per second while zooming beside a sprinting cheetah, the team put together a compilation that captured every nuance of the cat’s movement as it reached top speeds of 60+ miles per hour.

The extraordinary footage that follows comes from multiple runs by five cheetahs during three days of filming.