A
cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to
run. There are different ways of distinguishing cursorial organisms; for example, they can be distinguished by feeding habits so that a
horse is a cursorial grazer and a
wolf a cursorial predator. Cursorial organisms are typically adapted to long-distance running at high speeds, rather than animals with high acceleration over short distances; thus, a
cheetah is considered cursorial, while a
leopard is not. Among vertebrates, animals under 1 kg of mass are rarely considered cursorial, as they typically move in a series of short bursts rather than at a constant speed. All extant cursorial vertebrates are
endothermic, allowing high metabolic rates and high endurance, though it is possible some extinct species were
ectothermic.