Do you ever watch a tear line running on a cheetah's face. Why do you think they have those tear lines ?
When we observe the Face of the Cheetah, we can see that
there a line running from the eyes. When we keenly observe the tear lines of
Cheetah, we will definitely get a doubt about why there is a tear line for
Cheetah's.
Let's see why there was two tear lines from every
eye.
Cheetah's have two tear lines that run from the
inside corners of their eyes down to the outside edges of their mouth.
These marks help reflect the sun's glare whenever the cats are off hunting during the sunniest of days - in that way, cheetah's don't
get blinded by direct sunlight like we do, even in midday.
The tear lines work in a similar way to the black marks worn
by rugby players. They're also helpful features for the cheetah in order to
stay focused on its prey.
There is Zulu folklore tale about how the cheetah got its
tear lines:
Once a hunter was too lazy to be about
his business, wishing that someone could get the meat for him. Soon, he saw a
female cheetah making a successful kill and feeding it to her cubs, and all of
a sudden decided to steal all these cubs in order to train them for hunting.
Soon, when the mother cheetah was away, the wicked hunter
accomplished his terrible deed, kidnapping all the cubs without leaving a
single one . Once the mother found her babies gone, she became
heartbroken, searched for them far and wide, and kept calling and crying all
day and night, so long and so hard, until her tears made dark stains down
her cheeks.
Soon, the elders got wind of the event and went to punish
the lazy hunter, who had also broken the tribe's most sacred traditions -
in Zulu culture, it's tradition that a hunter must use only his own
strength and skill, otherwise dishonor comes. But even when the wicked man
was eventually forced to bring the cubs back to their mother, nevertheless
her long weeping stained her face forever - and those tears are worn
by her children(modern day cheetah's) to this day.
According to the locals, this tale carries a moral: a
cheetah wearing the tear stains on its face is a reminder for hunters
that it is not honorable to hunt in a non-traditional , inconvenient
way.